


our ham is gods

by mallardwhizpeepee



Category: Teenage Bounty Hunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), F/F, F/M, M/M, Percy Jackson AU, Slow Burn, no beta we die like men, the fic nobody asked for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:02:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27781936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mallardwhizpeepee/pseuds/mallardwhizpeepee
Summary: “It means half-god, half-human, girls,” Yolanda said exasperatedly, opening the door for them, “and since that’s what you are, that’s what we’re gonna call you, so you might want to get used to it."The twins find out that they are Demigods, and accept a quest to fulfill a prophecy, you know, the basics.
Relationships: April Stevens/Sterling Wesley, Miles Taylor/Blair Wesley
Comments: 12
Kudos: 60





	1. Chapter 1

It was dark at the Yogurtopia. Vacant. Sterling and Blair were five blessed minutes from closing and had already started to clean up. They weren’t used to the closing shift yet because they had only started doing about three weeks ago, and they were tired.

They only took the shift in the first place to avoid their parents. On their birthday they had dropped two nuclear sized bombs on them. Sterling was, biologically, the daughter of their mom’s twin sister Dana. Blair _was_ Debbie’s Biological daughter, but not Andersons. To lessen the blow, they had provided them with an explanation each, before giving them their space. Dana couldn’t take care of Sterling and was unfit besides. Anderson couldn’t conceive, so they had asked one of Debbie’s exes, who happened to look very similar to Anderson, to “help out.” It had taken a week before they would even speak to their parents again, and two before they came to (shaky) terms with it. Sterling and Blair had sat down together and talked the whole thing over. They came to the conclusion no matter who _biologically_ did what, they were still twins, and Debbie and Anderson had still raised them.

As they cleaned, they had taken to talking about the top five things they wished they were doing instead of cleaning up a Yogurtopia.

“I wish I was watching T.V. right now,” Blair groaned as she scraped chocolate off of the fudge pump. Sterling had no idea how it became so covered in chocolate every day.

“I full on wish I was asleep,” She agreed as she cleaned the utensils island, shoving napkins into a dispenser.

“Well that’s because you’re a grandma who goes to bed at,” Blair checked the time on her phone, “9:55 at night.” She frowned, repocketing her phone and leaning on the counter.

“I’m not a grandma I just like feeling rested, and it’s easier to fall asleep if you go to bed at the same time every day.” Sterling argued, brandishing a napkin at Blair. All Blair had to say in response was an eye roll, as she mimicked Sterling, using her hand as a puppet. Sterling raised her finger to admonish her sister.

The bell at the door chimed like a punch to the gut. Sterling rushed around the divider to welcome the customer, as Blair audibly groaned, abandoning the chocolate dispenser so she could look busy farther away from the customer, opting to pretend to sweep around at the far end of the counter.

“Hi there, welcome to Yogurtopia, we’ll be closing up here in five-minutes, but you are welcome to stay until then, what can I get you this fine evening,” Sterling rushed out while standing behind the counter. She tried to think of the fastest way she could make this person a yogurt and send them on their way. As she looked up from the cash register, however, she finally noticed the customer in question. She was a woman. She had curly black hair and a tight mouth, drawn into a line, which only intensified the sharp edges of her face. Don’t get Sterling wrong, she was gorgeous, but in a scary way. Like she could beat Sterling six to Sunday. She was clearly in some sort of rush and seemed to be wound tight. She stared intensely, unblinking at the girls, like if she took her eyes off of them, they might disappear.

“Bowser!” she yelled, completely bypassing the girls, “Get your furry behind out here!” The twins looked at each other, faces twisted in confusion. _Furry_? _Also how does she know Bowser_? _We’re Bowser’s only friends_?

The woman started tapping her fingers demandingly into her arm. The door to Bowser’s office swung open, the end of its arc punctuated by a loud bang. He rushed out. His Yogurtopia cap sat lopsidedly on his head.

“What in gods-” Bowser stopped in his tracks, mouth falling open, “Yolanda… what are doing here.”

“They found them, they’ve already sent forces, they are on their way now” was her incredibly cryptic response. Bowser’s face shut into one of somber determination. He nodded before walking back into his office.

“Who have you messaged?” Bowser called from somewhere in the room behind the twins. The urgency at which they were speaking was extra disconcerting when taken into account how little the woman was moving.

“Camp. And the party ponies,” the twins looked at each other in confusion at that _What the hell were they on_? “I had to call their parents to tell them, so we have even less time now.” She jerked her head at the twins. At this point Blair had the sense to snap out of her confused stupor.

“Wait why did you call _our_ parents, do we know you,” Blair questioned sharply. Bowser and Yolanda looked between each other. Yolonda seemed to ask a silent question, to which Bowser rolled his eyes.

“That one,” Bowser said, pointing at Blair, “won’t leave without an explanation. The other one would get in a white van for free candy.” Yolanda squinted her eyes just slightly.

“Dumb?” She asked. Bowser thought for a minute.

“Optimistic.” Bowser corrected.

“Good to know,” Yolanda said with a nod. At that both twins started talking over one another in Sterling’s defense. Blair claiming that Sterling was not that bad. Sterling claiming that being an optimist wasn’t the worst thing a person could be.

“Ok, sorry girls, we don’t have time for this. Apparently, you all will want an explanation before we leave so here goes. Hi, my name is Yolanda. Bowser and I have been assigned to protect you for about three years now, you don’t know me because I work up at Camp. We need to leave right now because you are currently being tracked by a… threat,” Yolanda said with a nod at Bowser who had emerged from his office with a bow and arrows, as well as a club that looked like it had been ripped right off a tree. Bowser shook his head anticipating what came next, taking the time to rip some leaves off of his club. The twins sat in stunned silence for all of two seconds before they erupted in an even more confusing jumble of words than before.

“What the hell do you mean ‘threat?’” Blair made heard through the din. Yolanda rolled her eyes, while Bowser massaged the crease in his forehead. “And why do you have all these old timey weapons? Wait a minute is this one of those role play surprise party things? Are our friends waiting outside with like nerf guns or something?”

“Your guys’ birthday is _months_ from now,” Bowser grumbled, handing the bow and arrows to Yolonda.

“There’s not a lot of a point of telling you much more know, because it’s gonna take you more than the four seconds we have for you to come to terms with it,” Yolanda paused, only to be met by one look of curiosity and one of disbelief, “OK fine, I’m sure you both have heard of the Greek gods,” Yolanda said, to which both girls nodded.

“Hercules,” they said at the same time. Yolanda almost smiled at that.

“Sure,” Yolanda said with a tilt of her head, “Well the gods aren’t as cartoony or as fake as the average joe believes. They are very much real. They control everything on our planet and in our lives and you are lucky enough to both be one of their kids.” Yolanda said. The twins gaped, before looking at each other.

A benefit of being a twin is understanding your sibling and the minutia of their facial expressions so well, that you can basically have silent conversations.

_Oh, so they’re crazy Blair thought wide-eyed at Sterling._

_Nutcases Sterling agreed._

_Well how the hell do we get out of this, Blair asked._

_Text mom and dad to come get us, we can stall until then, Sterling supplied earnestly._

Blair nods and discreetly grabs her phone out of her pocket. Yolanda and Bowser notice and roll their eyes. As she opens her phone, she sees a notification for a new text in their family group chat. It’s from her mom and it reads ‘Your father and I love you girls so much. I hope you have a great time at Camp.’ A second message reads ‘Please just go with Bowser and Yolanda, they will keep you safe.’ A third ‘I know we said no more lies, but we couldn’t actually tell you guys about this for fear of godly wrath.’ A third, from their father, ‘I love you girls so much. Stay safe.’

“Damnit, what the hell mom and dad.” Blair said, startling Sterling.

“What?” whispered Sterling out of the side of her mouth.

“Mom and dad just texted us telling us to go with them and that they knew,” Blair told Sterling.

“But they said no more lies,” Sterling said, affronted.

“To be fair, they made an oath to the king of the gods, to never let you know about your… heritage,” Bowser said, jumping in.

“Wait… so that’s Zeus? And not like the whole Christian _king of kings_ thing right” Sterling asked, disbelief dripping off her voice.

“Oh, we aren’t gonna comment on that,” Bowser said. Yolonda shook her head somewhere to the left

At that they heard a knock on the Yogurtopia door.

“Come on we don’t have time for this we need to get to Camp Half Blood,” Yolanda said motioning them toward the door. Bowser stared leading them from behind. The girls gasped.

“That name is incredibly offensive,” Blair said matter of factly, Sterling nodding next to her.

“It means half-god, half-human, girls,” Yolanda said exasperatedly, opening the door for them, “and since that’s what you are, that’s what we’re gonna call you, so you might want to get used to it. If you like demigod better that’s also an option.” The twins jaws once again made a break for the floor.

“Wait when you said we were ‘lucky enough to be related to the Greek gods’ you meant that like literally!” Blair exclaimed as she and Sterling were ushered out the door.

“Do I seem like one for mincing words,” Yolonda said, moving from the girls to greet the people who had just arrived in the formerly vacant parking lot

The twins jaw’s destination changed to the center of the earth when they saw the centaurs. They were all bedecked in their southern finest, leather jackets, cowboy hat’s everyone of them in some sort of disarray. All four of th half-man, half-horses had managed to include neon somewhere on their person. The most jarring part however was where their human torsos blended into their horse halves. Skin transitioned to sleek coats, black, brown, and spotted. The men on top all had shaggy unkempt hair. They gave off very strong frat boy vibes.

“Those are centaurs. In real life!” Blair whisper shouted at Sterling.

“Yeah I can see that Blair.” Sterling replied, half hiding behind Blair’s arm.

“So maybe they aren’t crazy.” Blair said, jaw only just starting to make the return trip to it’s natural position.

“Or maybe we’re crazy.” Sterling said, unable to tear her eyes away as two of the centaurs raised themselves up on their hind legs, attempting some weird high-five with their horse hooves. Blair looked down at Sterling wide-eyed. They both adopted faces of deep thought as they pondered the possibility

“C’mon girls hop on,” Yolonda said, gracefully sliding on to the centaurs back, grabbing his shoulders at the straps of his leather jacket. Bowser had also made it atop the horse with only slightly more struggle. The twins looked at each other, before cautiously making their way to the two horses left over. Sterling approached a centaur that had a dark black coat on his horse half, which contrasted starkly with his paper white skin. He had on a jean jacket and a baseball cap that said ‘ _Party Ponies: Atlanta_ ’. She looked back at Blair who seemed to be equally full of trepidation about hopping on. They looked back at each other, silently communicating.

_Are we really doing this? Blair looked at Sterling, nearly smiling._

_I think we are. Sterling replied in disbelief._

_On the bright side if we really are crazy, mom and dad will probably just find us passed out in the parking lot tomorrow so really, there’s no way this can be that bad._

_Well actually Yolonda did make it sound like we were in a lot of danger. Sterling supplied with a shrug._

_Blair paused._

_Shut up, let’s just enjoy our ride on a centaur._

_Fair enough, Sterling agreed with a shrug._

With newfound vigor, the twins made to hop on the horseback. At this point their brains were so full of information that they simply had no more fight left in them. Yay, let’s jump on this horse man’s back, because at this point, why not. Being seasoned rich southerners, mounting a horse was the easiest thing they’d done in the last half-hour.

Both girls had barely managed to grab on to their respective shoulder straps before they were off. And boy, were they off. At first, they started off slow, before starting into a gallop. Sterling only had a minute to question if horseback was really the fastest way to get where they were going, before the world around her started to blur as the speed they were moving at increased. With inch blink, Sterling was introduced to a new landscape. A field, a city, a neighborhood. At one point she swore they were galloping across a lake. After about a minute of inexplicably fast travel, they stopped next to a grassy hill. In the distance she could make out some type of body of water. They could see a city skyline on the other side it wasn’t Atlanta, but somehow it still looked familiar.

“Wait, where the hell _are_ we?” Blair demanded, hopping off her centaur with a hurried thank you, before stalking towards Yolanda and Bowser. Sterling followed behind her also thanking her ride, she may be confused beyond belief, but that didn’t excuse her from being polite. She glanced around at her surroundings, at the top of the hill next to them was a massive pine tree. She felt an incredibly strange pull towards it. Like when you get home from vacation and just want to fall into bed. Yolonda took the bow and quiver of arrows from her back where she had stowed it for the ride. She also thanked the centaurs, sending them on their way. As fast as they had brought them there, the centaurs were gone.

“New York,” Yolonda responded succinctly. The twins blanched.

“New York City? Like the New York a thousand miles from Atlanta. The place we were at not 2 minutes ago?” she asked, gulping deep in her throat. Yolonda opened her mouth to reply, sarcasm already oozing from her eyes, before a squawk interrupted her. Whatever comment she was about too make was swallowed back into her throat, her face quickly becoming blank. All she said instead was:

“Shit.”

Which served as the starting gun to the most horrifying and enigmatic race of the twin’s lives. Yolonda yelled run, and Sterling and Blair were too shocked by the sudden change to do anything else. They ran across a road and hopped over a fence before starting up the hill. It was fairly steep and covered in roots and fallen branches that proved difficult to avoid. Yolonda and Blair navigated it fairly easily, but Sterling was struggling to keep pace while avoiding the different obstacles. She had nearly tripped three times. Bowser seemed to be surprising agile, but not quite as fast as either Blair or Yolonda. He muttered something to the tune of _damn fake shoes, don’t get how y’all wear them_ , before he popped off his purple, green, and white tennis shoes, revealing hooves where his feet would be. At any other time, Sterling is sure she would have questioned the older man (was he a man?!) until the cows came home, but for now all she managed was a strangled gasp.

As they neared the top of the hill, Blair managed to catch her breath enough to continue questioning Yolonda.

“Why are we running?” Blair gasped out.

“The things tracking you,” Yolonda panted, “They are called Stymphalian birds. They suck and they’ll kill you unless we make it to the other side of this hill.”

“Yeah, sure, why not,” Blair wheezed. She clearly couldn’t find enough breath to speak past that, given her uncharacteristic silence. As Yolonda and Blair reached the peak of the hill the birds decided it was time to strike. Just as a large sign lit by old-fashioned torches reading Camp Half Blood came into view, a bird dived towards Sterling, who was still about ten feet behind. Bowser jumped in front of her, pushing her out of the way taking the brunt of the attack. As one beak tore through Bowser’s upper arm another tore down through his thigh. Sterling realized at that point that their beaks and feathers were metallic. As they moved, she could see feathers rustle, hear them beat together like wind chimes. Bowser yelled out in pain as he fell. Yolonda turned with a gasp, she and Blair had made it through the arched sign already. After half a moment of contemplation and a tight-throated noise of frustration, she turned back to Blair.

“I need you to run like hell to that Blue house right there at the bottom of the hill, OK? Ask for Chiron, tell them there’s trouble at Thalia’s pine,” Blair paused staring worriedly at Sterling, “Go!” Yolonda finished with a yell and a gesture. Blair looked at Sterling one more time. She was kneeling protectively near Bowser her head turned to the sky trying to measure when the next attack would be she had picked up Bowser’s club and was holding it like a baseball bat. Blair didn’t want to leave her alone, but just then another bird swooped, and sterling grand slammed it into a tree. She could protect herself for now, but Bowser would need help soon and Sterling couldn’t hold them forever. Blair took a deep breath and started sprinting towards the illuminated house. Yolonda sighed in relief and ran back for Bowser, joining Sterling next to him before pulling a bag of weird looking food out of her jacket pocket.

“Get to the other side of that archway, and you’ll be safe,” Yolonda said, pulling a small piece of gauze from her jacket pocket. Sterling didn’t move. “I said go!” Yolonda yelled looking at Sterling, who just shook her head.

“No, I’m gonna help,” Sterling said, refusing to budge an inch. Her eyes turned to Yolonda’s earnestly.

“That is very brave, hon, but it’s mostly stupid, it’s our job to get you here safe, if we don’t do that we get in trouble, and it would be a shame to see your pretty little face torn up by devil birds,” Yolonda said, applying the gauze to Bowser’s leg. Sterling ignored the warning continuing to stand her ground.

“I’m not leaving you guys.” Sterling said, “I can help carry him…” Yolonda finally looked at her again. She thought of the way Sterling had just pressed return sender on that bird with the club. She looked back down at Bowser who had passed out from the pain, blood staining his jeans, an two matching wounds on his arm and leg. She sighed in defeat.

“It’s actually more inconvenient arguing this with you right now so here, give me that,” Yolonda handed her the bow and arrows, taking the club from her, “do your best to at least distract those things. You can try and cover us; I’ll use the club if they get too close.” Sterling nodded and stood up. She had never used a bow and arrow before. She hoped to… whatever was up there that she wasn’t completely useless at it. She slipped the quiver over her shoulders and held the bow like how she saw people in the movies do it: One hand on what looked like a handle, the other on the string. She grabbed an arrow from behind her and managed to cock it on her first try, slipping the notch onto the string and keeping it in place with the index and middle finger of her left hand. She rested the front of the arrow where her right index finger wrapped around the bow. She pulled back slightly, aiming, trying to get a bird in her sights. As she held the bow she felt and odd rush of power surge from where her fingers touched the bow, through her body, pumping energy behind her eyes and into her brain. She suddenly felt calm and centered, like when she was winning a debate in forensics.

She heard more than she saw the first bird it’s faint tinkling alerting her it’s presence. She turned to the left, catching a sparkle from the torchlight on its metallic feathers. She pulled the arrow back to her cheek bone, somehow she could feel it was the perfect tightness for what she needed to do. She remembered how the feathers shifted in the dark, revealing the space under them which seemed softer. She aimed, breathed in, and fired on her exhale. The arrow sailed through the air. Sterling heard a clang as it connected. For a second she didn’t know if her aim had been true enough, it could have hit the bird, but not found a chink in its armor. The bird sputtered out a dying squawk as it fell out of the air. Yolonda stared at her, Bowser who had just regained enough consciousness to sit up, gaped.

“Why didn’t you tell me she could shoot like that?” Yolonda asked Bowser, who looked was patched up enough to stand, he gave a hazy shrug, he clearly had no idea she could either

“I didn’t know could, “Sterling supplied, ”I haven’t done that before. I don’t know how I did” She heard another squawk.

“Well you better do it again,” Yolonda said, groaning as she pulled Bowser from the ground.

“How is there more?” Sterling asked in disbelief, readying herself to fire yet again.

“Oh yeah, they travel in flocks of up to 50, my reports had this one at only 20 I think though,” Yolonda said somewhat hopefully, slipping one of Bowser’s arms around her shoulder. “We should get to camp,” Yolonda concluded. She tried to move as fast as possible, half dragging Bowser to the other side of the archway, but the going was very slow.

Sterling on the other hand was moving and thinking faster than she ever had in her life. She had fallen into the pattern of, draw, cock, breathe in, fire. Over and over again. Every arrow finding a home in a bird. She could feel herself running out of arrows, but she knew she couldn’t slow down. She had begun to notice, even in the darkness, that the birds never hit the ground, instead bursting into showers of golden dust.

Bowser and Yolonda had just turned around at the other side of the arch way when Sterling made her first and last mistake of the evening. She had counted out twenty shots. One arrow left sitting in her quiver. She had made each target she had thought pridefully. She turned around, to run the rest of the way to the archway when she noticed Yolonda scream her name and wave wildly at her to turn back around. This caused Sterling to try to stop and turn at the same time, which ended with her falling firmly on her back and knocking the wind out of her. This particular moment of clumsiness however, most likely saved her life, as it caused the bird not to penetrate her torso, but instead, her calf. She screamed out in pain. It was burning through her entire leg, swimming in her ears, and blacking out her vision. Her heart was pounding. She felt a rush of wing toward her chest. In a moment of pure adrenaline, she rolled out of the way just in time for the bird to miss, crashing in to the dirt a foot from her torso. She screamed and stabbed blindly at the bird with her final arrow. Arcing it out of the quiver and toward the ground where she thought the bird would be. She felt it penetrate through the metallic feathers. Dust engulfed her hand. She saw the world around her engulfed in white before promptly passing out.


	2. Chapter 2

Sterling didn’t wake up for a while. She didn’t fully wake up anyhow. She remembers brief flashes of her surroundings before she wakes up fully. The world around her every time, was painfully bright, and she could sometimes feel her leg throbbing. The first time, A very tall man is talking to a woman who may have been Yolonda. They were whispering quietly amongst each other. Sterling couldn’t make out what they were saying, but she could feel the anxiety coming off of them in droves. The second time, she recognized Blair and Bowser. He patted her back and told her to get some sleep, leading her out of Sterling’s line of vision. The last thing she remembered seeing was a girl with wavy hair standing over her. All Sterling catalogued was that she smelled _really nice_ , before the girl jumped back apparently having realized Sterling’s eyes had flickered open. All in all, uneventful.

Waking up, however, was a different story. It was a very groggy, unenergetic wake up for her standards. She groaned a little, rubbing her face with her hands. She blinked her eyes open. She didn’t recognize where she was, she remembered the brightness, from her brief moments of lucidity, but overall, everything else was new. It wasn’t anything cliché like forgetting what had happened the night before or the hundreds of bombs that had been dropped on her in an hour-long time period. She just had no idea where she was. She sat up slowly trying to get a better look at the room she found herself in. It was white and sterile, like a hospital. Lot’s of beds in a long room. She could see a door somewhere to her left, and a hallway beyond that. She felt the sun on her back, indicating that there was a window behind her. She could see through the window on the other side of the wall. She saw a stream curving around whatever building she was in. On the other side of that sat a field, the aroma of whatever grew there making itself known through slighting hints of sweetness in the air. Beyond that sat a forest. It was painstakingly picturesque, and its beauty brought on a rising feeling in Sterling’s chest

“You drool in your sleep.”

A voice drawled from her left. Sterling jumped her chest plummeting from where it had ascended to. She tried to scoot as far from the noise as possible, and in the process, fell off of the twin bed she had been confined to. She groaned at the similar breathless feeling from the night before. Her eyes widened at that thought. She definitely should have had a bruise on her back from that, but the only thing she felt was air returning to her lungs. She tried to get to her feet as gingerly as possible, expecting pain from her massive leg injury, but finding none. She stood the rest of the way up swiftly, first stepping on the injured leg, then putting weight on it, then hopping on it. It was fixed! She had been in the worst pain in her life and it was healed just like that.

“They fixed my leg,” She whispered, her awe almost turning it to a question. The person in the chair on the other side of the bed seemed unimpressed.

“I can see that” they drawled again. Drawled didn’t even seem like the right word. The person spoke with sharp enough diction to mince an onion, even while sounding impossibly bored. At this point Sterling looked at the stranger, fully prepared to go into further detail, explaining how cool it was, but she stopped short. The stranger was a girl. A girl who happened to very pretty. Sterling recognized her auburn hair, even now as it was tied in a clean-cut ponytail, her finger stalled mid hair twirl. Her eyes were the grayest blue Sterling had ever seen before. The girl wore jeans and an orange t-shirt that had Camp Half-Blood printed on it. Around her neck was a necklace, with several clay beads of varying colors string on it. From where she was standing Sterling could just make out that there was a small, simple design on each bead. The girl’s calculating eyes had narrowed at her in her silence.

“I’m so sorry but, who are you? Also, where am I?” Sterling asked, shifting her weight

“I’m April, you’re at the infirmary at Camp Half Blood.” The girl, April explained succinctly. She sounded all the world like she had not even thought before answering, her mind instead calculating the best way to extract her own information out of Sterling.

“Ummm… cool,” Sterling offered lamely. At least she had somehow made it to the other side of the hill. How had she made it past the hill? “How did I make it here?” She asked, “I mean to this side of the hill, I know how I made it here, well I kind of know, I’m still confused how those centaurs-”

“The brunette girl you came with fetched Chiron and he carried you,” the girl, _April_ , rattled out, “Who are you?” She finished on, her true purpose for being here, revealed. Sterling felt like she was somehow being roped into a chess match. April’s first move already to enigmatic to foil. She absently wondered if she did debate

“I’m Sterling. Wesley. I’m from Atlanta.” Sterling said, sticking her hand out to shake. April did not shake her hand. April seemed to take the hand as some sort of afront. Like she was expecting something different and astounding. She stepped past the outstretched arm, and right into Sterling’s personal space, making it really difficult to get a proper breath in.

“How did you do that?” April asked, squinting up at Sterling. Sterling wondered briefly what age she was, she had to be several inches shorter than her but she acted like she was at least ten years older.

“Do… what?” Sterling gulped; she was beginning to feel very intimidated by the tiny girl, she looked around, hoping against hope that anyone would come running into the infirmary.

“You managed to kill twenty Stymphalian birds. With a bow and arrow. That used to be considered impossible, but you somehow managed to hit them right between the feathers, finding weak spots...” April seemed to trail off at that point, thinking some more. Sterling wondered what the hell she was doing so much thinking on.

“I don’t know, beginner’s luck I guess,” Sterling said with a breath of laughter. April remained unimpressed and unamused. “Ummm… do you know where Bowser and Yolonda are. Or my sister-”

“Your sister?” April asked, this seemed to be the first curveball of the day for her.

“Yes, my sister Blair, she was the brunette girl who ’ _fetched_ ’… what’s his butt, the guy who helped me. Have you seen her?” Sterling was beginning to get annoyed. April seemed to have no intention of helping Sterling figure much out at all. And she was getting tired of being interrupted.

“It can’t be,” April said, she had stepped away from Sterling her eyes tuned downward in thought.

“Ummm… sure can, we have the same parents and everything, have you seen her anywhere?” Sterling was fully miffed at this point. She didn’t like when people were needlessly cryptic. On top of that she was beginning to be set on edge. What did it matter if she had a sister? Plenty of people had sisters. This girl was acting like she had said she had an invisible second head. She had to get out of here and find Blair.

“Is she your twin sister?” April asked, returning her gaze to Sterling. She had had enough.

“Why do you care!” She exclaimed, “Yes, ok, she is can you please tell me where anyone is, jeez.” Her exasperation had reached a boiling point. She was done just sitting around. Her outburst went mostly unnoticed by April. After the confirmation, she had gaped a little before disappearing into her thinking face once again. She started walking out of the room, a half-hearted _follow me_ gesture thrown over her shoulder. Sterling wanted to scream a little bit. Who was this girl! What right did she have to write Sterling off like this.

Sterling continued to simmer, walking behind April as she expertly navigated through the house. She led them out of the house and onto a wraparound porch, the type she was used to seeing on houses in the south growing up. It provided her with a strange homesick comfort. Other than that, everything was different.

Now that she was outside she was even more taken with the view. From here she could see. The same field, stream, and woods, but she could also make out several other small buildings spattered between the green expanses. One looked like a mini Roman Colosseum. There were also people milling around everywhere. All of them were wearing orange t-shirts like April. They all seemed to be busy doing something fun. Some were playing basketball a little way away. People were canoeing where the stream seemed to widen to a lake, before thinning again. Everywhere she looked she saw some group of people laughing and smiling. She even saw someone who appeared to have goat legs and stubby little horns. _Maybe that’s what Bowser is_ she thought, remembering his hooves. She felt even more content than she had before. The air was clean and sweet. The sun was out. She already missed her parents like crazy and wondered somewhere in the back of her head when she would see them again, but she was settled. She could already tell that she was meant to be here, that some part of her needed to be here. Following the stream, she saw the body of water and the skyline she had seen the day before. _Wait, was that eve yesterday? How long was she out?_

“Wait, how long was I out?” Sterling asked turning to April. April, however, was not standing there. She had moved to the other side of the giant centaur who had taking her place. Sterling yelped in surprise which caused the man to chuckle. April for her part. Managed to snap out of the pensive state she had remained in since leading Sterling outside, so she could smirk at her. “Uhhh… Howdy.” Sterling said breathlessly, leaning up to make eye contact with the man. His bottom half had a gorgeous white mane, that part of Sterling wanted to reach out and touch, but she figured it was probably rude. His top half looked like your average middle-aged man. Curly brown hair, matching beard, kind eyes that twinkled with aged wisdom. His features distinct but soft. He smiled down at her.

“Howdy to you too, Sterling,” he said, smiling a little more at the greeting, “I’m Chiron and we should probably talk.” He said, his tone remaining light, but his eyes losing some of their mirth. Well that isn’t a good sign, thought Sterling. Just as she was about to question him what they needed to talk about she heard someone shout from somewhere to her left.

“Sterling!” Shouted Blair, only a second before she barreled into her at full speed, wrapping her in a bear hug. Sterling was forced to huff out all the air in her lungs at the speed at which Blair hit her, but she still nearly spilt her face in half with a smile before turning to return Blair’s hug with full force.

“Oh my god I missed you so much, I know it’s only been like twelve hours, but I was so worried,” Blair rushed as she pulled back from the hug, resting her hands on Sterling’s shoulders. “But you look really great actually. Are you feeling OK?”

“Yeah I’m great, my leg doesn’t hurt at all,” Sterling said, finally getting an appropriate reaction to the revelation as Blair gaped at her.

“Yeah that’ll happen when you have a next to deadly amount of Ambrosia,” April said with a roll of her eyes, and her arms folded. Blair squinted at her in annoyance.

“Yeah, well you didn’t see it at its worst, _April_ , otherwise you would have thought it was cool too,” Blair bit out at her. Sterling looked at her sister, shocked.

“You know her?” She asked Blair.

“Yeah, do you?” Blair asked, equally shocked.

“She was there when I woke up,” Sterling said before whispering to Blair, “She kept like ignoring me and being all cryptic.”

“Yeah she gave me my tour of camp earlier today,” Blair whispered back, “She’s annoying, acts like she’s smarter than everyone.” April looked at them annoyed.

“Would you stop whispering,” she gritted out at them. Sterling blushed a little at having been caught. Blair rolled her eyes.

“While I’m glad we all know each other, we need to talk,” Chiron said, not visibly uncomfortable with the interaction, but he cleared his throat awkwardly when nobody moved. “All three of you, follow me,” He said turning and walking to the far corner of a porch.

There sat a table with three folding chairs and one wheelchair. It was empty which gave Sterling pause. She remembered a joke Blair had told her about once from one of her favorite stand-up specials. It had something to do with an empty wheelchair. Something about hoping for a miracle but knowing in your heart it probably wasn’t. Sterling felt that that was quite apt for how she was feeling right now. She was hoping that she was just being rushed to some gifted kid camp, and everything that had happened the day before was just a very intense, very elaborate form of hazing. But she knew it was probably more sinister. As the three girls reached the table, Chiron stepped back to allow for April to sit in the chair next to the wheelchair. She walked past him, like it was routine, and started shuffling the deck of cards that sat before her. Chiron made like he was going to sit in the wheelchair. Sterling couldn’t figure out if that was somehow in poor taste, or how Chiron was going to even fit in it. He slowly moved his hind legs so that they were parallel to the wheelchair He lifted one back leg and made like he was going to set it on the seat of the wheel chair, instead, it seemed to enter some hidden compartment. He did the same with his other leg, before making to kneel. As he sank down, his entire horse half seemed to fit itself into the compartment in the wheelchair, his front legs folding themselves in last. As he settled himself, Sterling noticed a pair of fake human legs, where the legs would normally rest. Suddenly he looked all the world like any other wheelchair-bound middle-aged man. Perfectly average. Sterling and Blair’s jaws once more made a beeline for the ground.

“So I assume you girls already know the basics,” Chiron said, “Yolonda and Bower probably told you that much.” Blair shook herself out of her shock and met Chiron’s eyes.

“Greek gods are real. We are somehow one of their kids. Creepy spooky birds are chasing us..” She rattled off.

“Oh, and Bowser has hooves,” Sterling finished. Blair turned to her in alarm.

“Wait really?” she asked.

“Oh yeah, he took his shoes off when we were running away from those bird things, and I saw them, I don’t know how we didn’t-”

“Oh my god,” April interrupted, not looking up from her cards, “Bowser is a _satyr_ , half-man, half-goat, it’s not a huge deal.” Chiron looked down at her with a hint of light admonishment on his brow. April rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything further.

“Yes, that’s correct, but it’s more than just ‘creepy spooky birds,’ I’m afraid. There are countless different types of monsters that will be looking for you now. Which is why Bowser and Yolonda brought you here. Bowser is what we call a protector. It is their job to find people like you, demi-gods. Yolonda is sort of his…” He trailed off not knowing how to describe her.

“His boss,” April supplied, reshuffling the deck of cards.

“Yes, sure his boss. She coordinates all protector efforts from here. Your case, however, is a little different.” He said, giving the girls a meaningful look, which radiated something near pity, “We aren’t going to talk about why that is right now though, because we still need to decide how we are going to handle it.” Sterling did not like how mysterious he was being. What does he mean different. Who’s we? Before she can ask any of that though, Chiron continues.

“Now do you two have any idea who your godly parent might be?” at that April looks up from her deck of cards, intently, like this information could make or break her. Sterling and Blair look at each other.

_So do you remember anything about the Greek gods, Blair questioned Sterling._

_Probably not more than you do. Zeus is the king, and he has lightning. Then I think Athena is the smart one. Hades is the one with all the dead people. I think Aphro- something is the love one._

_And Ares is the war one, Blair said, finishing their collective knowledge._

_Of course he’s the one you remember, Sterling said in disbelief._

_Oh shut up. I don’t think that’s all of the though, Blair said._

_I don’t think so either, I know there’s more, I just don’t remember who they are, Sterling said._

The twins returned to their conversation with Chiron, with one last glance at each other.

“Yeah we got no clue,” Blair said for the both of them. Her face brightened with an idea, “Actually, whoever they are is probably our dad. We both technically don’t know who our biological father is.” Blair exclaimed, to which Sterling nodded vigorously.

“Well that narrows it down to Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, Apollo, Hephaestus, Hermes, or Dionysus.” April said thoughtfully, more for her own benefit, than the twins.

“Umm, just to recap,” Sterling said uneasily, “Zeus is like lightning, Poseidon is water, Ares is war, Apollo is… the sun? Hephaestus like builds things really good, I _think_ Hermes is the messenger, and Dionysus is booze.” Chiron looked at her in surprise. Whether it was because she was very off or he didn’t think she would be able to remember them, she didn’t know.

“That is more or less correct,” Chiron said, for which Sterling earned a high-five from Blair, “Apollo is not just the sun god he performs many duties. As does Hermes. Most gods generally have a few things that fall under their umbrella. The female gods are Hera, the goddess of marriage. Demeter, the goddess of fertility and plenty. Artemis, the goddess of the moon and of the hunt, as well as Apollo’s twin. Aphrodite the goddess of love and beauty. And Athena, the goddess of wisdom. She is April’s mother,” Chiron gestured to April who had yet to return from deep thought. Blair and Sterling took all of that in.

“Well based on that,” Blair said, “I have no idea.” Chiron nodded, like that was the answer he usually got.

“Well now that, that is settled, April, why don’t you show Sterling around camp.” April looked up at that, annoyance once more depressing her features, “It was wonderful talking to you all, I look forward to seeing you for capture the flag.” With that Chiron stood from his wheelchair, and walked off, reentering the house. April grumbled as she stood up, something about looking forward to crushing the twins before fixing Sterling with a bored look.

“Come on, let’s show you around.”

Sterling was nearly impressed by the level of boredom and annoyance April was able to balance as she led Sterling around the camp. Sterling received a lackluster, but detailed introduction to the entire camp. They followed the path of the creek away from the house, that Sterling learned was creatively named, the big house. Across from the big house, April had vaguely pointed to the stables, the armory, and the arena, which was the Colosseum like building Sterling had seen from the infirmary window. Farther down there were the volleyball courts, and arts and crafts, the amphitheater for the nightly campfire and sing along, and an impossible climbing wall that featured lava and falling boulders. They crossed the stream before heading back in the direction of the big house. They passed the mess hall, which smelled delightful with the leftovers of lunch.

The last stop on the tour were the cabins. They main layout was shaped like a U, with several cabins radiating out from them. There were two at the vertex of the cabins, that looked like banks, all marble, and columns, but the rest looked like slight variations on your average camp cabin. Several looked completely empty, while others seemed to be stuffed to the brim. Sterling was amazed

“There was originally only twelve, for the main twelve gods. A couple years ago we started added cabins for the minor gods as well. Some of them are honorary, like Artemis and Hera, because they both do not have mortal children. The big three gods, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, are mostly empty now, because they made a ‘pact’ to not have kids, which they break on a fairly regular basis.” April droned, she sounded like a bored tour guide, which Sterling supposed she kind of was. “So that’s camp, don’t go in the forest except for when the explicitly say you can.” April said before turning on her heel and walking with a purpose to one of the cabins, leaving Sterling standing alone. _How rude_ , Sterling thought, it wasn’t Sterling’s fault that Chiron forced the both of them into a tour.

Just then she caught sight of Blair. She was talking to a boy who had to be around their age. _Stupid extrovert Blair_ , Sterling thought. How did she already have friends, she’s been here for a day. The boy was tall and a little lanky. From where Sterling was standing she could tell he had a nice smile. He said something that made Blair laugh, her hand playfully smacking his upper arm. His dark skin glowed golden in the first signs of sunset. _A friend that is very cute_ Sterling thought, a smile growing on her face. _Blair you sly dog_ , the smile on her face nearly splitting it in two, Blair had already found someone to flirt with. Sterling marched over to the two with the full intent of teasing her sister.

“Howdy Blair,” Sterling called as she neared Blair and the cute boy. Blair looked at her, a smile on her face, that fell only slightly at the mischievous tone of Sterling’s voice.

“Hey Sterl, glad to see you also survived your tour with April,” Blair said. Sterling stopped beside her, looking expectantly at the boy, “Oh yeah, Sterl, this is Miles, he’s a son of Hephaestus. Miles, this is my twin sister Sterling.” Blair gestured between them. Miles stuck his hand out and Sterling shook it.

“Nice to meet you Sterling,” Miles said, smiling.

“Likewise, Miles,” Sterling replied. It was good to see that not all demigods were so abrasive. “So you build things well?” Sterling smiled, “good hands and all that?” Blair choked on her own spit, but Miles seemed oblivious, laughing.

“Yeah sure, all of us Hephaestus kids are. I was just telling Blair about your sleeping arrangements for tonight, since you haven’t been claimed yet,” Miles said, turning a little sheepish at the last bit.

“And what might that be?” Sterling asked, inflated curiosity in her voice as she looked between him and Blair.

“Oh, we sleep in the Hermes, cabin until we are ‘claimed,’” Blair said, discreetly elbowing Sterling in attempts to stop her thinly veiled teasing. Sterling just nodded as earnestly as she could while suppressing her laugh. Miles seemed to oblivious as he smiled at them before looking at his watch, his eyes bugging.

“Well it was great meeting you Sterling, but I’ve got to run, I have to get ready for capture the flag,” He said before racing off, in the direction of a cabin that looked vaguely like a factory. Sterling turned to Blair.

“What’s the big deal with capture the flag?”


	3. Chapter

Sterling’s question was answered a couple of hours later, at dinner. They had been stuffed on to the end of the Hermes’ table's bench, she could feel April’s calculating eyes on her from the less crowded Athena table. Sterling refused to look at her, sure she would only receive a glare or a smirk for her trouble. The girls had been steered around, showed how to get food and drink, how to make an offering to the gods, and now they were digging in. It was delicious and it made Sterling remember how little she had eaten. The last time she had eaten was dinner the night before. Her mom had made pork chops and remembering her mother and father made Sterling a little homesick. She didn’t know the next time she would see them again. She vowed she would drag Blair to arts and crafts tomorrow to write them a nice letter.

As they finished their meal, Chiron stood up, followed by a chipper looking blonde woman. She had elfin features and a radiant positive attitude that Sterling found endearing.

“Hi y’all, for those of us who don’t know me, cause I know some of y’all are new, I’m Ellen, the activities coordinator,” Ellen smiled brightly at Blair and Sterling, “and I am happy to announce that tonight’s game of capture the flag will continue as scheduled, thanks to the Hephaestus cabin clearing up their minor mechanical malfunction.” The camp cheered, clapping sarcastically at the Hephaestus cabin. Sterling saw Miles sitting at the end of the table closest to Chiron. He rolled his eyes good-naturedly and clapped with the rest of the camp. “so just as soon as y’all finish up here, we can head on over to the woods.” Sterling gulped at that. The woods? She remembered April’s warning. The head counselor for Hermes stood and smiled at the table.

“C’mon guys! Let’s gear up! Athena isn’t gonna win again today, I can feel it.” The table roared their approval as they all stood and rushed in the direction of the armory. Blair and Sterling looked at each other.

_Armory?!?! As in where they keep the armor, Blair exclaimed._

_Uhhh… yeah, like there’s another armory, said Sterling with an eye roll._

_Shut up, I’m freaking out, Blair said, I thought they meant capture the flag, like with tagging people._

_Me too, I don’t want to get, like, wounded again, Sterling said, her eyebrows pulling as her mouth set in a grimace._

_Uh yeah, or worse die, Blair exclaimed._

_Oh, right, no, Sterling said nodding._

_Both girls pondered for a minute._

_OK, they probably won’t let us die, Blair rationalized._

_Yeah, think about the liability, Sterling agreed._

_OK, so we will probably be fine, Blair said._

_Right, no more maiming, Sterling concluded._

The girls calmed themselves as they joined the rush of campers to the armory. Upon their arrival, they saw people outfitting themselves with armor and helmets, and grabbing bronze swords that had a strange power radiating off of them. Sterling wondered if the way they strange way they caught the dying light was just her imagination. Blair smiled in glee, bolting towards the armor, and collecting some for herself. Her trepidation from earlier seeming to have disappeared. Sterling joined her, perusing her options. There were heavy bronze breast plates and matching thick, bronze shin and arm guards. Sterling cringed internally. She could _not_ imagine doing well in those. She pictured herself in the heavy plating, her range of movement limited and her speed diminished. She looked around for other any other options, she wanted to be protected, but not impaired. A few feet away from the armor she was looking at she found a different set. It was much lighter, consisting of a leather chest plate, as well as thin bronze arm guards. Next to that was a pile of what looked like wrist braces. Like something a secretary wore for carpel tunnel. Sterling liked this set much better, it looked far more flexible, she didn’t picture immediately dying while wearing it. She gathered up each piece, as well as the wrist band. She also picked up a helmet, before thinking and setting it back. She didn’t like how it limited her vision, narrowing her peripheral vision. She opted instead for a blue sash to discern herself from the other team.

Blair and Sterling helped each other get strapped into their armor. Following the lead of the other campers. Comparing their handiwork along the way. Blair had not forgone the helmet but had also gone light in the armor department, with a leather chest plate, and the thin bronze arm guards.

“So, who do you think your _godly father_ is” Blair asked Sterling, while tightening the shoulder strap to her chest plate. Sterling thought for a minute.

“I don’t know,” she answered, “I figure that it’s not one of the ‘big three’ because April said they had crazy weird powers. Like I probably would have talked to a fish or something by now.” Blair nodded at that.

“Yeah totally. I think it would be really baller to be a child of Dionysus.” Blair said, turning so that Sterling could tighten the straps on her.

“What? why?” Sterling asked. She looked over at the closest pair of campers to them. A short girl with dark hair was helping a much taller boy with his armor. Sterling guessed the boy was from Aphrodite. His clothes were impeccable, and his armor polished to a mirror finish. The girl was harder to tell, but she had a kind smile.

“Because he’s, like, the wine and party god,” Blair said, as if that were obvious, “That means that I could probably just make wine and stuff just, like, appear.” She made a poofing gesture with her hands. Sterling was taken aback.

“Blair, that’s _illegal_ , you aren’t twenty-one,” Sterling admonished, smacking Blair’s helmet.

“Hey, hold on there, I said ‘ _and stuff,_ ’ I’m pretty sure that guy over there has been refilling that Kool-Aid bottle, with like, every flavor of Kool-Aid,” Blair said, pointing at a young boy several feet away. He gulped down the remnants of his blue Kool-Aid, smacked his lips, and magically refilled the bottle with the red version of the same drink.

“Ok yeah that would be cool,” Sterling conceded, as Blair mouthed thank you. “I’m not sure though, I don’t think I’m party-y enough to be a child of Dionysus, though. I have no idea who my godly dad is.”

“I just hope mine isn’t Hephaestus,” Blair grumbled, straightening her chest plate. Sterling gasped at that, a smile splitting her face.

“Why? Is it cause you _like_ Miles?” Sterling said, poking Blair on the word ‘like.’

“What? Maybe? I don’t know. It doesn’t matter,” Blair said defensively, “aren’t we all like, technically related anyways?”

“April said that the godly side doesn’t really work like that,” Sterling stated, slipping on her arm guards. Blair made a face.

“Your tour was far more informative than mine, that little smart ass barely told me where the bathrooms were.” Blair said, rolling her eyes.

“Mine wasn’t great either. I just ask more questions than you do,” Sterling said, tightening the strap of her arm guard to a comfortable tightness. Blair scoffed.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize there would be a quiz, you dweeb,” Blair said, tightening up her last strap, before strolling past Sterling.

“I’m not a dweeb, I’m just a curious person,” Sterling called, before following after her. “and I only asked, because I saw a couple like, inside of each other by the canoe lake, and she said that we aren’t related by our godly parents, because they don’t have DNA, or something like that.” Blair rolled her eyes again, but Sterling could tell that she was a little relieved to hear the information nonetheless.

As they reached the weapons, Blair immediately grabbed a sword. It was about three feet long but was fairly thin and light. She swung it with gusto, barely missing a Demeter camper, who in their shock, accidently sprouted a patch of daisies. Blair grimaced in apology. She turned back to Sterling

“Oh yeah baby,” she said holding the gleaming sword in front of her, “feels just like ol’ Marvin.” Sterling rolled her eyes.

“Are you comparing a deadly weapon to your lacrosse stick right now?” Sterling asked in disbelief.

“OK A, Marvin is a deadly weapon, or have you forgotten how I broke Hannah S.’s leg in the eighth grade,” Sterling could only shrug in accord with that, “And B, I just mean that they are kind of similar to hold. This is just like in plays where I’m not as choked up on the stick.” Blair finishes, grinning maniacally down at the sword. Sterling looks through all of the swords. None of them really call out to her. One seems too long or too heavy, another too short. They all gleam at her. It feels weird to think, but Sterling felt as though something about them was pointing her in another direction. Their reflected light gently steering her in another direction She glanced to her left to see the racks of bows and arrows. She walked absently toward them, something about them inviting her in. They were like a toy she had wanted for Christmas, all she had to do was unwrap them. She remembered how centered she was while she was using the bow the night before. The power that had filled her every inch. She grabbed a bow off the shelf and started filling a quiver with arrows.

“Uh, hey Sterl girl, watcha doing?” Blair asked cautiously, sidling up to where Sterling was standing.

“I’m grabbing a bow and arrow,” Sterling said matter of factly, “for capture the flag.”

“Why would you do that, Sterling? You may not recall, but you have never _learned_ how to shoot a bow and arrow.” Blair said, poking Sterling in the arm, her eyebrows raised.

“Well I don’t know if you heard, but I held my own against those birds, with a bow and arrow, just fine.” Sterling replied, throwing the quiver over her back.

“But that could have just been adrenaline, or dumb luck, or a hallucination,” Blair whined, “Take a sword, all you have to do is swing it at people.”

“Ok I think at this camp you’re going to have to be able to do more than just swing the sword at people,” Sterling said, turning to Blair, “And if it will make you happy, I will also grab one of those tiny little knives.” She pointed to a box of tiny knives, none of them were any bigger than 6 inches. Blair looked like she wanted to shake some sense into her, but she must have figured out that Sterling wasn’t going to budge, because she sighed.

“OK fine bring a tiny little knife, but you have just relinquished all of your freedom in this game to me, I am not leaving your side for even a second,” Blair said, pointing sharply at Sterling.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Sterling smiled, shoving a small knife into her belt.

“The red team is Athena, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Dionysus,” Ellen announced, “The blue team is Hermes, Apollo, Ares, and Hephaestus.” Everyone started running to their respective sides. The forest was split evenly with a stream, which served as the boundary line. Whichever team carried the opposite team’s flag over that line first, won. The head counselor of the Ares cabin, a curly-haired boy named Franklin, seemed to be in charge of strategy. He handed out jobs to each person on the team, before getting to Sterling and Blair.

“So I heard about what both of you did last night,” he said looking between them, he pointed to Blair, “You are fast like a deer,” he pointed to Sterling, “You have freakishly good aim,” the twins looked at each other and shrugged. “Because you’re new, most people won’t think of you as a threat, and no one will know any weaknesses you might have. You guys are wild cards, so I’m gonna play you like wild cards.” The twins’ faces were sprinkled with confusion. “You guys are gonna go in as a stealth team, just the two of you. You’re gonna try to steal the flag. We don’t know where it is so if you find it first, take it and run. If you don’t just be a distraction. Got it?” The twins nodded; the goal seemed simple enough. If not slightly terrifying. Franklin nodded back at them, before jogging off to his own assignment. Sterling and Blair looked at each other briefly, before running in the opposite direction. If they were going to sneak in, they needed to be far away from the action. They hid behind a tree, wanting to remain a secret until the game started. They both took a moment to breathe deeply and center themselves. Neither of them had done anything like this before, but they figured being on pins and needles wouldn’t do anyone any good.

From the direction Franklin had run, they heard battle cries, signifying the game had begun. Sterling and Blair ran toward the stream, they heard the bulk of the fighting happening several yards to their right, so they figured this would be a good breaching point, far from the action. Just as they reached the stream, Sterling grabbed Blair’s arm and dragged her behind a bush.

“I see two guards. They’re a little bit past that first tree on the other side of the tree,” Sterling pointed minutely. The girls slowly peaked their heads over the bush. The two guards had to be at least 20 feet past the tree in question.

“Nice catch Sterl,” Blair said, studying the guards, “What should we do?” Sterling cocked an arrow. “Wait, Jesus, Sterl, we don’t need to kill them?” Blair exclaimed. Sterling sent her an incredulous look.

“I am not killing anyone,” Sterling whisper-shouted, “Half of the arrows I have are blunt. This will just knock them out,” Sterling shrugged before aiming. Blair breathed a sigh of relief before focusing on what Sterling was doing. She released the arrow. It sailed through the air, clunking the guard in the head, just above his exposed brow bone. He promptly fell over, unconscious. Blair quietly gasped, turning to her sister in awe. The remaining guard, startled, and fell immediately into guard. Luckily, she hadn’t been paying enough attention to where the arrow had come from and just stood stock still, sword up, prepared for an attack. Because of the angle, Sterling knew that she wouldn’t be able knock the girl out as well. However, Sterling noticed that the sleeves of the shirt the girl was wearing were very flowy, and long. In the girl’s current position, there must have been at least a six-inch gap between the sleeve and the girls’ arm. Sterling also noticed the tree right behind where the girl stood. Sterling reached for another arrow, somehow she could feel that this was a sharp one. She cocked it, pulled back, breathed, and released the arrow. It sailed through the air, ripping through the girl’s sleeve, and pinning it to the tree behind her. She let out a strangled yelp, dropping the sword in her pinned hand. She tugged at her sleeve, but it wouldn’t budge. She tried to pull the arrow out, but it was sunk too far into the tree. Blair smiled, open mouthed and shocked at her sister.

“I guess you didn’t need the knife after all.”

Together the girls crept over the creek, and silently past the guard, who didn’t notice them, too preoccupied with freeing herself from the tree. They continued to run quietly, Blair taking the lead, Sterling staying farther back, arrow at the ready. After mere minutes of looking, they found what had to be where the flag was hidden. The crouched behind an outcropping of rock, hiding themselves from guards yet again. Displayed on a tree branch at least ten feet above the ground, was the red flag, mounted like an old medieval banner on wooden poles. It was being held in place with one thick branch supporting the bottom, and a more flexible one laying across the top, securing it in place. At the base of the tree sat three bulky guards. They were all built like brick walls and armored to the teeth. They were wearing much tighter clothing then the guard sterling had just pinned as well.

“OK, how the hell are we gonna get past them,” whispered Blair, “I don’t think there is way for you to shoot them-”

“I could probably get an arrow in the little pieces that don’t have armor,” Sterling supplied, squinting at the targets. Blair tilted her head in disbelief

“No, you can’t Sterling, because that would kill or seriously injure them,” whispered Blair exasperatedly.

“Oh yeah that’s fair,” agreed Sterling.

“OK, now that we have established that we can’t shoot them from here what should we do?” Blair asked.

“Well we probably couldn’t take them one on one, even if magically one of us is a better sword fighter than them, we’re outnumbered and they have way more armor than us,” Sterling whispered, thinking out loud, “There’s also no way we could climb that tree fast enough.” Blair’s eyes lit up, and she started getting antsy, like when she was holding herself back from doing something impulsive. Somehow she had scraped together a plan from all of the negatives Sterling had just listed out.

“Do you think you could shoot the flag out of the Tree,” Blair asked, staring at the guards. Sterling considered it.

“Yeah probably, I’d just have to hit the dowel at the- Wait Blair where are you going!” Blair had taken off towards the guards. They immediately noticed her, taking up positions to defend. Blair made like she was gonna attack them head on, before sidestepping them and running around the tree. All three guards, apparently in a panic, decided to chase her. She ran away from the tree, then towards it again. Constantly changing her path to avoid them. As Blair dodged the guards again, Sterling noticed a pattern. Blair would glance at the flag, run away from the tree again, and glance at it. She was trying to lead the guards away from where the flag would fall, Sterling realized. The guards still seemed to be in the dark of Blair’s true motive. They tried to circle her, but with a twirl and a step, she had passed them again. Her distraction worked. Sterling reached for a blunt arrow and cocked it. She aimed for the bottom dowel aiming as near the lower branch as possible. She released her arrow. It connected with the wood, smacking it out of the tree. Blair let out two weird coughing laughs to mask the sound of the flag hitting the tree branch, then the ground. She smiled at the guards.

“This has been super fun, but I gotta jet.” She said, before side stepping them again, scooping up the flag as she passed it. She didn’t stop as she passed Sterling, and Sterling hadn’t expected her to. She ran behind Blair, covering her, shooting arrows at anyone who tried to block her path. The guards ran behind her, but their heavy armor slowed them down, She faintly heard them call for backup. Blair was a blur in front of her. Sometimes Sterling forgot how fast Blair was. She ran and jumped over obstacles like an Olympic hurdler. Dodging around trees in her path.

Just as Blair made it to the tree line, Sterling was tackled from the side. She was knocked down, her bow sent flying. She landed awkwardly on her quiver; it digs into her back. Her assailant had rolled on top of her. Sterling stared up into April’s eyes, which were fiery with rage. April pulled a dagger from her belt and aimed the hilt right for Sterling’s uncovered head. Sterling managed to swing the small knife from her belt just in time to knock the path of the weapon over her head. The unexpected shift in her force caused April to fall further on top of Sterling, her left elbow collapsing near Sterling’s ear, her other arm fully outstretched, palm to the earth. Sterling’s own arm was trapped by April’s, above her head. The other arm locked to her body by April’s leg. They were very tangled and mostly stuck. Both of their chests, heaving because of the running and the adrenaline of the brief altercation. Sterling found herself at eye level with April’s lips. She stared at them, an emotion deep in her stomach made itself known. April opened her mouth to say something to Sterling that had the full intention of being hurtful, when she was cut off by a cheer. April looked up, and the rage in her eyes intensified. She hastily stood up, stepping around Sterling, kicking her knife, and stalking off in the direction of the stream.

Sterling felt her whole body heat up. What the hell was that. She felt something stir deep in her stomach, it was minorly uncomfortable, like the drop on a roller coaster. She stood, watching April argue in the distance with the three flag guards. Her fingers pointing at them with deadly precision, fueled by anger. What the hell was that she thought again. She shook her head. She didn’t need to know what that was, it didn’t matter. If April didn’t like her before, she definitely didn’t like her now. And she had just tried to inflict a serious head injury on her, for god’s sake! It was useless to waste time thinking on it, she would most likely never interact with her again. Sterling made her way to the stream, with a sigh, picking up her knife and bow as she passed them.

She found herself in the middle of a much happier scene. Ellen was congratulating the blue team, and everyone was cheering for Blair. Franklin was clapping her on the back, and proclaiming it was his plan to send them to get the flag. Blair noticed her standing too far away and beckoned her over.

“Hey guys, Sterling here did a lot of the work too, she knocked like, so many guys out.” Blair said grabbing Sterling’s hand and holding it in the air. The team cheered again, and Sterling felt pride bloom in her chest. She _did_ knock a lot of guys out.

Just as she was about to compliment her sister on her insane speed, she heard a very familiar squawk. Everyone around them continued to talk and laugh, but Blair and Sterling’s faces dropped in fear. Immediately Sterling brought her bow in the air, facing the noise. The din around her lessened, she couldn’t tell if she was just tuning them out or if they had actually quieted. It didn’t matter. She scanned the sky for the bird. Just as she spotted it in a high tree branch, it began to dive at her. She steadied herself, pulled the arrow back and fired. Just as it had the night before, the arrow landed true, hitting a small chink in the bird’s armor. It evaporated into dust, sprinkling on the campers below it. Sterling screwed up her face. _Gross._

As she lowered her bow, Sterling realized that she was being stared at by the entirety of Camp Half Blood. She felt eyes on her from every direction and it made her feel self-conscious. She smiled awkwardly as she turned back to Blair, planning on asking her what everyone was looking at. As she did she gasped, Blair gasping at the same time.

“There’s something on your head,” The girls exclaimed at the same time. Above Blair’s head hung a glowing symbol, it looked like the sign on an ambulance, A staff with wings, encircled by two snakes. It cast a brown glow on Blair’s hair and face, almost neon in the coming darkness. As she realized what Blair said she noticed a golden glow coming from above her own head. She and Blair ran to the border stream to try and glimpse what it was in their reflections. Sterling looked down and found a watery version of herself looking back at her. Above her head sat a golden glowing sun.

The girls looked back at each other.

_Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! they yelled to each other, silently._

“Oh my,” said Ellen, kneeling along with the rest of Camp Half Blood. April knelt last, and Sterling couldn’t tell if it was out of shock or anger. “I guess it’s fitting you two being claimed at the same time, being twins and all that.” Ellen continued, attempting a joke, “All hail Blair Wesley, daughter of Hermes. All hail Sterling Wesley, daughter of Apollo.”


	4. Chapter

The twins found themselves back in the big house. It’s not surprising considering the mayhem that had happened after capture the flag. Chiron had very politely told them that they would be joining an emergency ‘war council,’ that would be taking place immediately. They had been ushered out of the forest while Ellen made sure all of the campers made it to bed. The campfire would no longer be happening. She sent them off with promises of extra s’mores the following evening.

Sterling wasn’t sure how something called a war council was supposed to look, but she figures that this was irregular. They were in what looked like an average rec room. They were all gathered around a large ping pong table, that was sparsely covered in a sad array of snacks. Chiron sat at the end, in his wheelchair, the twins in folding chairs to his right. Around the ping pong table sat a handful of campers, in varying levels of armor, leftover from the game of capture the flag. Sterling understood them all to be the head counselors of their respective cabins. How democratic, Sterling thought. Directly across from Chiron and the twins, sat April. She embodied a weird mix of excitement and rage. She was one of the counselors who had managed to completely rid herself of armor, as she sat stock still in her blue jeans and orange camp t-shirt. Her body language was hurling daggers at Sterling and Blair. But her fingers tapped impatiently on the table, and she stared unblinkingly at Chiron. On either side of her sat the two campers she had seen getting ready at the armory. The boy somehow still looked completely unrumpled, even after a vigorous game of capture the flag, not a wrinkle present on his shirt nor a speck of dirt under his nails. The brunette girl was glancing all around the table nervously. Part of her looked like she wanted to comfort April, but the other part must have had the common sense to see that April was in a biting mood. Her hand would raise slightly, like she was going to pat April’s back, but would lower at twice the speed. Kitty corner to Sterling sat a tall, beefy boy. He had big hands and curly brown hair. His eyes shone with bewilderment as he tapped his calloused thumbs together. Sterling remembered that he had been assigned to flag guard on for the blue team. He must have done a fairly good job, seeing as they won. On his other side sat Franklin. Who looked equal parts annoyed, bored, and sleepy. The other representatives seemed to be somewhere on the scale between Franklin and the nervous brunette girl. Just as the semi-awkward silence rose to a head, Miles stepped through the door of the rec room, closing it softly behind him. He took a step or two into the room.

“You wanted to see me, sir?” He asked, he looked around at the people gathered at the ping pong table. He had clearly been to one of these before in the way he approached the ping pong table, like he knew some sort of regulation order he was supposed to follow.

“Yes, yes, excellent, let’s begin with our first, and most urgent order of business.” Chiron said, motioning for Miles to sit in the vacant spot between himself and Blair. Miles nodded and moved to sit.

“Hi,” Blair whispered to him as he sat down. Sterling rolled her eyes. Maybe now is not the best time to flirt, _Blair_ , she thought.

“Hi,” Miles whispered back with a genuine smile.

“How did that bird get past our borders? As we all know it should be impossible.” Chiron asked. The group all thought introspectively, each person trying to think of weak spots. No one seemed to land on anything. Even April seemed stumped.

“I actually have an idea about that, sir.” Miles said with a raised hand. Chiron smiled proudly.

“I thought you might, my boy, that’s exactly why I brought you in, what is?” Chiron asked. The corner of Miles’ mouth pulled up at the compliment.

“The new delivery system we have for packages and food for the kitchens,” Miles explained, “We just updated it yesterday. We made an entryway that we can briefly open, for mortals to enter. They drop shipments off, they leave, and we close the door again. It makes it way easier to transport goods in and out of camp. I think that there could have been a security breach. Having a completely open door like that, it’s a risk. The Stymphalian bird most likely slipped in during the delivery of fresh vegetables we received today,” The table was silent at that. “I have some ideas on how to fix it, maybe make it more airtight.” Miles stopped himself, realizing that his next step was to wait for confirmation. Chiron nodded.

“That sounds perfect, Miles.” Chiron turned to the boy sitting next to Sterling, “Luke, are you OK with Miles leading the charge on this?”

“Oh, of course.” Luke said, surprise evident on his face. Sterling guessed that he must be the Hephaestus cabin head counselor. He didn’t look much like Miles at all, but they had the same strong hands. Luke seemed fully supportive of the idea but confused why he wasn’t in charge. “Is everyone else OK with Miles taking the lead on the renovations of our delivery system?” Miles looked around the room hopefully. All of the other campers nodded.

“Excellent,” Chiron said, hands clasping together, “Thank you Miles you are excused. I hope to see some preliminary blueprints in the next few days.” Miles nodded smiling, as he got up and left the room. He moved with purpose, like every step was taking him to a drawing board. Chiron watched him go, his face hardening once Miles was of sight.

“Our next point of business is a little murkier,” Chiron said seriously, “I have been reading the stars for my whole life, I like to think I know them well. I study their messages, and their stories. I glean what I can from them,” He cleared his throat, “I saw something in them about 17 years ago that shook me. It wasn’t so much a premonition as a feeling. I felt something coming. Since then I have watched them closely, picking out small pieces of a larger story. Four years ago, I managed to piece together parts of the picture. Pegasus pointed me south, and Gemini foretold twins. I sent Bowser out to find you immediately. It took him almost a year, but he found you.” He turned to talk directly to the twins, “The stars have changed. I see something coming in your future. Something too great for even the stars to foretell.” Sterling and Blair remained dumbfounded by the information. Until the night before, they had both been able to predict the direction of their life pretty well. Sterling would go to college, probably for teaching, settle down with a rich husband, have a few kids and live out her days in suburbia. Blair would get a lacrosse scholarship, study mixology, buy a bar, and probably coach some little kid lacrosse team. It was simple. Neither of them would do anything _great_. Don’t get them wrong, they would have enjoyed those lives, but neither one of them hungered for fame or notoriety. Now Chiron had saddled them with greatness, and neither twin knew exactly how to ride.

“Is that why Yolonda had to fetch them personally?” April asked, breaking through Sterling’s stupor, there was only a hint of malice in her voice. Sterling wrinkled her nose. _What is with her and the word fetch_ , thought Sterling.

“Yes and no.” Chiron said, “She had to come get them personally because of my premonition, but also because of the threat that was tracking them. She thought because of her connection to nature, she could throw off the scent.” Blair and Sterling looked at each other doubtfully. They had only been around Yolonda for an hour, but she did not put off ‘ _one with nature_ ,’ vibes.

“So, what is it?” April asked point-blank, “What is coming? Or are we just going to have to wait.” She seemed oddly impatient. Like they were talking about her fate, and not that of the twins. _Of course,_ she would insert herself, thought Sterling. She looked at Blair and they rolled their eyes.

“The stars have seen a prophecy,” said Chiron, looking meaningfully at April, “and I sense it will reveal itself soon.” April was not satisfied with that answer.

“How soon is-”

April’s question was answered by a mist floating and hissing through the room, dragging a figure behind it.

When obscured by the green tinted mist, all Sterling could make out was the outline of a person. The arms and legs and torso looked thin and bony. The hear lolled toward the figures rib cage The figure was slowly approaching the ping pong table, but no part of their body was moving. It was as if the were floating an imperceptible amount above the ground. As the figure got closer, they only became scarier. Sterling saw dried hay-like tufts of ancient gray hair. Their skin was dry and cracking, it looked like a thousand year old scroll, writing obscured by dust and time. Their every facial bone bulged under their taut skin, resembling a shrunken head. Their clothes were from another era. A baggy tie-dyed shirt was tucked into a long flowing skirt, cementing their ghost-like appearance. A headband sat securely around their head, more so keeping the hair together, than pulling it back. Their eyes glowed green, mist spraying from their mouth. Sterling guessed that the mummy had been a woman once upon a time, but now all that remained was a husk. More a haunted rag doll than a human person. All of that was nothing compared to the ancient, scraping hiss of her voice.

_Blessed twins, power hath twain_

_With owl, dove, forge, and grain_

_Must fight as one the gods to keep_

_Before the lord of darkness creep_

_One must die to crucial price_

_A whole now halved from sacrifice._

With that the figure collapsed. The green smoke snaked slowly back into the mummies gaping mouth With the final hiss of mist returning to the mummies mouth, the room was once again silent.

“Jesus,” whispered Blair. Sterling couldn’t take her eyes off of the corpse on the floor. She was fully convinced if she looked away from it, it would evaporate into dust. Chiron sighed, bringing his hand to the bridge of his nose.

“Franklin, would you please take her back to the attic. Bring Mr. Tekna with you as well,” Chiron asked, not so much in the form of a question but a demand. Franklin seemed like was going to complain, but he got up, dragging the head counselor of Iris cabin with him. They both took an end of the body and gently picked her up. They slowly carried her out the door, making sure to avoid jostling her too hard. Chiron returned his attention to the group.

“I believe that was the prophecy you were waiting for, April.” Chiron answered, an odd tone in his voice, like the sentence meant more than one thing. For her part, April looked almost as shocked as the rest of the people at the table.

“Uh, what the hello was that?” Blair demanded, “Am I bonkers or did a mummy just tell me that I might die very soon.”

“It’s not a mummy, twit, that was the oracle of Delphi, she just gave you a prophecy,” April explained. Blair narrowed her eyes at that.

“I’m sorry, could you repeat that, I stopped listening to what you said after you brought back the word twit.” Blair fired back, arms crossing over her chest, “You sound like an angry, thousand-year-old nun.”

“Oh, do I, well you sound like a brain-dead-”

“Guys stop, please,” Sterling said, cutting April off. This proved to only anger her further, but she fumed in silence. “What does this mean, because to me it just sounded like a really cryptic poem.” The brown-haired girl next to April spoke for the first time.

“When you get a prophecy, you have to go on a quest so you can fulfill it. They always rhyme,” She said, the boy on the other side of April nodded.

“They’re always that incomprehensible too,” He agreed.

“Thank you for the explanation, Hannah B. and Ezekiel,” Chiron said, “They are absolutely right.”

“OK let me get this straight,” Blair said incredulously, “Sterling and I have to take down some _lord of darkness_ , with two birds, an anvil, and some wheat, and then one of us will still have to sacrifice ourselves so that the gods won’t all die? They’re immortal, what the hell can kill them?” Chiron looked at the other campers who all seemed uneasy, seemed to know something that Blair and Sterling didn’t.

“Many things can kill a god, Blair,” Chiron answered, “Many things have.”

 _Oh hooray, how wonderfully vague_ , thought Sterling.

“Also, you won’t be fighting with an actual, owl, dove, forge, or grain,” April said, only half condescendingly, “those are the symbols of the gods. The owl is the symbol of Athena, the dove is Aphrodite, the forge is Hephaestus, and grain is Demeter. It means that other demigods will go with you, the kids of those four gods.” Sterling felt sick.

“Are we sure she’s right?” Sterling said, turning to the centaur “Chiron, you said yourself that prophecies could be unclear.”

“I meant my reading the stars, they can be… unspecific,” Chiron answered sadly.

“The oracle’s prophecies are confusing, but they always come true. In one way or another.” Luke added. Blair and Sterling looked at each other. They refused to accept that one of them had to die.

“OK, we _so_ aren’t going on that quest.” Blair said finitely. Sterling agreed with her but was worried how that would affect the others. April’s fiery simmer turned ice cold.

“What the hell do you mean _you aren’t going_?” April seethed, scarily quiet. The other people at the table were split between being confused by Blair’s statement and scared by April.

“Just what I said, we aren’t going. If the gods are asking me to choose between them and my sister or myself, I say, let ‘em die.” Blair explained in disbelief. That successfully turned every head in the room. Even Chiron looked a little shocked. Thunder rumbled dangerously overhead. Everyone, but Sterling and Blair, tensed up.

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” April said, her dangerous look was laser focused. Sterling felt her eyes burning holes through her.

“I think I do. There is no way I am dying for any of those ancient douches, not me and not my sister. They can’t just use us like that. I mean two of them are our fathers, right? And they are just _OK_ with one of us dying? Well, if they don’t give a shit, neither do I!” Blair exclaimed, her volume rising. April slapped her hand on the table, causing both the snacks on the table, and the people sitting around it, to jump.

“What do you think happens if the gods die?!” April yelled. “Do you think that the world will stay the same? Because it won’t. The gods control every single thing you know and see, and everything you don’t. Without them, there will be chaos, anarchy without justice, and everyone will die. You think the gods are unfeeling? Then you certainly won’t like who will take their place.” Blair was silent at that, mouth agape. Sterling was near tears. She could feel them coming, pushing against her tear ducts. No matter where she looked, all of her options screamed back at her, soulless and dead.

“What do you mean take their place? They- They’re gods.” Blair asked, her voice near a whisper. Chiron flicked his eyes to the ceiling; a flash of anger pulled his eyebrows together as it passed his face.

“I’m afraid you will meet them very soon,” he said, his voice hollow and dark. “The Lord of darkness could mean many things, but the stars…” He trailed off and shook his head; he couldn’t manage to finish the sentence. Sterling realized that Chiron was scared. She looked around the table, everyone looked scared. Because they think they are going to die, thought Sterling. They will die, she realized. They will die, and so will Bowser, and her parents, and Blair. All of them will. There would be no hope.

“I’ll go.” She said.

“What?” April and Blair asked at the same time.

“I said I’ll go; I’ll go on the quest.” Blair burned a hole in her head, trying to get her to turn, to communicate. Sterling wouldn’t do it. What was the point? Her mind was made up. She _had_ to do this. And Blair wouldn’t listen to her if she did. Chiron looked down at her, beyond his fear, Sterling saw what might have been pride. It also could very well have been pity. Everyone else at the table relaxed a hair. Now they had a chance. It might be a slim chance, but it was better than inevitable death. Blair’s agitation was coming off of her in pulsing waves, crashing into Sterling’s chest angrily.

“No, you won’t,” Blair bit out at her, shaking her head. April turned on her, biting retort on her tongue, finger aimed at Blair like a knife.

“Yes, I will,” Sterling asserted, she could feel the shake in her voice, she swallowed, taking a deep breath. “It’s my decision, not yours. And the way I see it we have two options. We go on the quest and one of us dies to save the people we love, or we don’t, and we die anyway, along with everyone we care about.” Sterling turned, finally looking at Blair seeing she had at least been heard.

_Sterling, I’m not letting you do this, Blair repeated._

_Like I said, you can’t stop me, Sterling smiled sadly._

_I’ll call mom and dad, Blair countered._

_They can’t stop me either, Sterling replied._

_But you know they’d agree with me, Blair urged, they wouldn’t want you to go either._

_I know they wouldn’t, because I’m lucky enough to have a family who loves me, Sterling smiled again, and I love you guys too, so much, which is why I have to do this. I could never let anything happen to you all._

_Blair scowled at her, trying to come up with an excuse but falling short, she couldn’t argue with Sterling’s logic because she knew she would do the same thing._

_I hate it when you make sense, I should have never let our parents put you in debate.._

_I know, Sterling replied._

“Apparently my sister has a death wish, and god knows I can’t let anything happen to her, so, fine, I’ll go too, I guess.” Blair grumbled and slumped into the seat. April had the audacity to smirk, like she had factored into the equation at all. Chiron’s shoulders sank just slightly.

“Well now that you have officially both accepted the quest, let’s explore some logistics,” Chiron sighed, settling now that they had landed back in the monotonous, “We need to figure out who will be going with you.” Sterling could just barely hear Blair mutter _anyone but April_ to her right. “I vote that we choose the senior most and therefore most experienced child of each of the four gods in the prophecy,” Chiron said glancing at Blair. Sterling almost chuckled, he had heard her too. “You two don’t know too many people yet, and we need talented, trustworthy people on this quest. Do the four of you accept?” He swept his eyes over the candidates.

“I accept,” Luke said from next to Sterling. He punctuated his statement with a firm nod, the bewilderment in his eyes had turned to a sort of fearful determination.

“As head counselor of Demeter cabin, I also accept,” Hannah B said timidly raising her hand.

“I’ll be there,” Ezekiel waved, his shirt not even wrinkling at the movement. Everyone turned to April. Sterling groaned internally. _Of course_ , she thought. With their luck _of course_ April was the head of Athena cabin.

“Obviously, yeah I accept, how long have I been waiting for this?” April asked rhetorically. The room around them seemed to shrug as everyone conceded the point. Sterling’s eyebrows furrowed. How long _had_ April been waiting for a quest

“Great now that we have our own little Scooby gang, do any of you actually have any idea what we have to do? Cause all I got from that is that we have to fight together, and then Sterling or I dies.” Blair said, gesturing lazily in her defeat. Chiron’s mouth crumpled into a thin line. He definitely had an idea.

“I have an idea of where you need to go, but I can’t be sure of what you may face there.” Chiron finally said, quietly, “Everyone who is not joining Sterling and Blair on this quest may return to bed. Thank you for your time.” The other counselors seemed surprised by the sudden change in subject, but none complained as they made their way out of the room, leaving the seven of them to discuss the quest. Once they were alone Chiron continued. “The stars have started to disappear. It’s as if they are being hidden. I haven’t been able to read them clearly for weeks. Something among them is moving, awakening. I can’t be fully sure what it is, but I have an idea. I think you will find him at Mount Orthrys, It’s where he is closest to us.” Blair looked at Sterling in question. Neither of them knew what Chiron was saying. Sterling looked to the others and found comfort in the fact that most of them looked as in the dark as she felt. April seemed to be the only person who was catching on. It was wildly unsettling that this was the first time she had seen fear pass over April’s face.

“Find who?” Blair asked. Chiron shifted uncomfortably, a look of grief tarnishing his face.

“I believe you will find my grandfather, Uranus.”

Sterling and Blair walked out of the big house together. The four other demigods gave them half-hearted good nights. Even April managed a gruff demand of “Get some sleep,” before trudging off toward her cabin. They both couldn’t part ways yet, so they sat on the steps.

“Damn,” Blair said looking out at the stream.

“I don’t think the world has stopped flipping on its axis since last night.” Sterling said, twisting a string on her jeans. She noticed for the first time that she was not wearing the clothes she had been at the Yogurtopia. Today she wore jeans and a Camp Half Blood t-shirt. She looked at Blair and realized that Blair was wearing the same thing.

“The world has been doing an Olympic bar routine on its axis.” Blair agreed. She turned to Sterling and they laughed. Sterling let herself sit into the nostalgia of lounging on porch steps, listening to bugs in the air, feeling still.

“Shit, we’re gonna go fight monsters,” Blair whispered.

“Yeah, we are,” Sterling said, smiling at her sister, who returned it in full force. Blair sighed and stood up.

“April’s a bitch, but she’s right. If I don’t get some sleep tonight, I’m gonna get killed right away, and I absolutely am _not_ relying on April to keep your ass alive,” Blair said, offering Sterling her hand. They walked silently to the cabins.

“Night Sterl,” Blair said, walking toward the Hermes’ cabin.

“Night Blair,” Sterling called after her. She steeled her heart for the days to come. No one was going to die. She wouldn’t let it happen. She turned and walked toward the Apollo cabin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're gonna start jumping into the action now fellas B)


	5. Chapter 5

Sleeping in the Apollo cabin was really weird. For one Sterling hadn’t slept this far away from Blair since they were infants. For two, the place was chaos. Don’t get her wrong, they were really, very hospitable. Her bed had been made, and a pair of pajamas had been set out for her, courtesy of the Apollo head counselor. The cabin had been so peaceful and serene that, upon crawling under the covers, she had immediately passed out. Even managing to sleep through the night, which was a godsend (gods-send?) given everything she had to do the next day. The morning was when hell seemed to break loose. She was gifted about three blissful, peace-filled moments of quiet right as she woke up. Sun flooding the room and warming the golden ceiling above. She stretched her arms above her head, letting her body start waking up. With a yawn, she sat up and opened her eyes, which is when the anarchy around her made itself known.

Loud R&B music was being blast through small speakers found in every corner of the cabin. Sterling had no idea how she could have slept through it. Two younger campers rushed past her bed, carrying a hamper of dirty clothes. They bumped into the foot of Sterling’s bed in their hurry, effectively jostling her fully awake. At every other bed, a camper was straightening out their space. Bedsheets were smoothed, blankets were tucked, and pillows were fluffed. She even saw one kid ironing a pillowcase. By the large windows facing the rising sun, kids were picking up drop sheets, covered in splatters of paint, the easels that had been standing on them were neatly tucked into a broom closet. The art pieces the easels had held, had been moved to display cases by the cabin’s entrance. As Sterling stood up, a camper came racing behind her, broom in hand. With each step, she could feel the broom sweep up any traces she left behind. Looking around, she recognized the Apollo head counselor, standing on a stool dusting the corners of the sitting room.

“Hey!” Sterling called up to him, the kid sweeping behind her running off to annihilate someone else’s footprints. The kid on the stool continued dusting. He seemed to find a particularly persistent cobweb right behind a mounted speaker.

“Hey!” Sterling tried again, “Omar!” The kid won his battle with cobweb and moved on to eliminate the dust on the back of the speaker. In doing so he turned his body on the stool, so it was facing Sterling, his head bending to get a better angle on what he was cleaning. Sterling huffed a breath out of her nose, her lips twisting to the side in frustration.

“YO! OMAR,” She yelled, waving her arms. Omar jolted in surprise, smacking his head into the speaker. He wobbled dangerously on the stool, but his flailing arms found solid purchase on the wall, and he managed to steady himself. His back was still bent at an awkward angle, but his arms were outstretched, pushing on the walls that met in the corner behind him. In the uncomfortable pose he looked like funhouse mirror Jesus.

“Ow,” Omar muttered, straightening his back, and lowering himself from the stool. Sterling gave him an apologetic look.

“Sorry,” she said, grimacing at the small, but increasingly coloring bruise on the boy’s forehead. He put the back of his hand to his head and gave her a tight-lipped smile.

“No worries, we can hope that all the bad luck for the day was wasted on me,” He bent down and picked up the duster that had fallen in the scuffle. His back popped as he grabbed it and there was a small grimace on his face when he stood back up.

“Yeah here’s for hoping,” Sterling laughed awkwardly, “Uh, quick q, what is happening right now?”

“We’re getting ready for the cabin inspection,” Omar said, “We have one every morning. One of the head counselors goes around with a checklist and makes sure everything’s… in order.” A camper ran past Sterling with furniture polish, quickly applying herself to a chair leg, and scrubbing.

“Is it always this intense? It looks like the queen is coming,” Sterling asked. The girl moved on to the next chair leg, leaving behind lemon scented wood. It was so clean Sterling could see her shoes reflected in them. Omar huffed a laugh at Sterling’s comment, his eyes widening like she wasn’t far off.

“It’s not always this bad,” he said, moving his hand to rub the back of his head, smoothing his hair down, like somehow even that might affect the inspection. “Most days it’s pretty chill, we just have to make our beds and keep everything neat. On the days Jennings does it, we all barely have to clean. But today…” He trailed off with a shudder. Sterling was beginning to have a pretty good idea of who might be in charge today. Omar looked at his watch, eyes bulging. A strangled squeak escaped his throat. He leapt over to the ancient iPod home on the end table next to Sterling. The loud music came to a dead stop, immediately being replaced by Omar’s ringing voice.

“Everyone, to their positions! She’ll be here any minute!” Omar grabbed Sterling’s shoulders saying, “come with me.” He dragged her to the entrance and pulled her out the door. Stopping just outside, he moved her so that she was standing right next to the frame, mirroring her on the other side.

Sterling looked around at the other cabins. At each door stood two people in the same position as Omar and herself. The air was eerily quiet. It was also delightfully lemon scented. Commanding steps echoed from the porch of the Athena cabin. Across the courtyard, Sterling could see a small figure emerge. From where she was standing she could just make out a head of Auburn hair pulled tightly into a ponytail. Oh my, how ever had she guessed? She watched as April walked down her cabin’s porch steps, before turning to her left, walking past the Artemis cabin, and entering the one on the other side. She was pretty sure that it was the Aphrodite cabin, because it looked like Barbie’s cottage-core dreamhouse. The Demeter cabin had clearly already been checked, based on the way Hannah B. stood slumped against the porch railing, fanning herself with the leaves of a fern growing in a nearby flowerbed. Sterling mapped April’s trajectory, realizing that the Apollo cabin would be near the end of the inspection. She couldn’t tell if she was more relieved or nervous at the expanse of time before April reached them. On one hand, the cabin looked pretty spiffy, and they very well could be one of the better cabins April had to inspect. On the other, April hated Sterling’s guts, and Omar had unwittingly chosen her as his second-in-command.

Sterling was snapped out of her thoughts by yelling. Raising her head, she looked first at the Aphrodite cabin. There was no sign of April, but Ezekiel stood laughing and looking as unrumpled as ever, as he watched the scene unfolding at the next cabin over. Moving her gaze, she observed the display that had Ezekiel near wheezing. April was tearing into a boy about her own age at the Dionysus cabin. He had shoulder-length brown hair that had been tied up into a ponytail, and Sterling recognized him as the Dionysus. He had been sitting next to Franklin at the war council the night before and seemed to have been the only person eating the provided snacks. Standing slouched in front of April, he seemed to be taking the verbal beating well, but the other Dionysus campers looked like they would faint at any second.

“Your cabin is disgusting, Jennings! The beds are barely made, and the floor looks like it was swept by a blind raccoon.” April fumed, “How is it that every day you manage to discover a new configuration of filth to arrange your belongings in? That’s a genuine question Jennings, because every time I walk in there I’m greeted by a completely new array of garbage. The sheer variety would almost be impressive if it weren’t so overwhelmingly disgusting,” April paused, receiving no answer before holding up what looked like a small jumble of metal, “Do you know what this is?” Jennings studied the metal with squinted eyes and pursed lips.

“Cat toy?” He guessed succinctly. April smacked his arm with her clipboard.

“This is all that is left of a contraband microwave. You somehow managed to sneak it in and completely destroy it in the week since the last time I did inspection.” April cried. Jennings appeared to have a moment of recognition, slowly nodding his head.

“Oh OK, I didn’t recognize it all in pieces like that,” he said before smiling at a memory, “Yeah I accidently left like three spoons in there and it blew up when I tried to make some nachos.” April stared at him in disbelief, her mouth slightly agape. She looked like she wanted to question him further, but seemed to give up, her mouth closing.

“You understand that you most definitely failed the inspection right? You and your cabin are going to be on stable cleaning duty.” April said, shaking her head.

“Oh, yeah, absolutely,” Jennings nodded in agreement. April stared at him a second longer before, dropping the crumpled metal in his hand and turning on her heel. The Dionysus campers all collapsed as Jennings strolled back inside throwing and catching the singed ball. Apparently cleaning horse shit from the stables was preferable to one more minute of torture from April. Sterling couldn’t help but feel a little impressed. She knew that if she was put in the same position as Jennings, she would have folded like origami paper.

April continued her reign of terror, stopping to admonish nearly every head-counselor. Sterling started getting worried for Blair. Her sister had thick skin, but April was ruthless. She had already made one boy cry, after she said that he ‘would never amount to anything,’ because of his poor mopping job, even naming several statistics proving her point. However, when she reached the Hermes cabin there was a visible shift in her demeanor. She looked less like Satan’s auditor and more like an actual human girl, with feelings. The Hermes cabin inspection was the shortest by far and April left without comment. Sterling’s mouth hung open in surprise, by April’s standards that was like giving them a giant trophy that proclaimed them the cleanest cabin in history.

“Why was she so nice to them?” Sterling whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

“Everyone goes easy on Hermes with the inspections, they always have like twice the kids of the other cabins and it’s impossible to keep it all clean. Especially since most of them are so new.” Omar whispered back. Sterling nodded thoughtfully. That was actually incredibly caring of April, maybe she wasn’t all bad.

“Do you think she’ll go easy on us, because I’m new?” Sterling asked hopefully.

“Oh, absolutely not. We’re going to be torn to shreds if there’s so much as a lint ball out of place.” Omar replied.

“Yeah I figured,” Sterling sighed.

With the slam of a door and some grumbles thrown at Luke, April was headed in their direction. The closer she got the harder Sterling’s heart slammed into her ribcage. She could feel a prickle of sweat on her back, and self-consciously wondered if it would stain her shirt.

April didn’t notice Sterling at first, too busy writing something on her clipboard. Upon looking up she almost immediately made eye contact with Sterling. A flash of something like rage widened her eyes and curled her lip. Sterling couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath. Something about that look rattled her, and she couldn’t quite place why. April didn’t seem to notice Sterling’s odd reaction, because she turned on Omar, completely ignoring her.

“Doesn’t Anna normally do this with you?” April asked frigidly.

“Uh, yes, but she broke her toe in arts and crafts last night, because she was bedazzling her quiver, and she dropped an industrial sized box of hot glue sticks on her foot, and she had a little too much ambrosia because she wanted to heal it before capture the flag, and uh she got a little sick. Uh, ma’am. Sir!” April rolled her eyes at Omar’s rambling explanation.

“Whatever,” April grumbled actively continuing to not look at Sterling, “Let’s get this over with.”

The inspection actually went surprisingly well. The only thing April seemed to find out of place was what she described as ‘unsatisfactorily folded towels.’ And also, Sterling. April seemed to find Sterling very out of place. Every scuff of her shoes and adjustment of her hair seemed to grate on April’s nerves, but instead of telling her to stop or even glaring at her, she continued to ignore her. The only evidence that she recognized Sterling was there at all, was the gradually increasing tension in her shoulders and jaw. In the end Apollo cabin got a middling score and therefore received neither a punishment nor a reward. Unless you considered not getting fully chewed out by April a reward, which most of the campers did.

The whole ordeal only served to make Sterling more nervous for the quest. April clearly accepted nothing less than perfection from those around her, and that sort of pressure was fully unwelcome. She had enough of a burden as it was. She somehow had to keep both herself and her sister alive while also figuring out how to destroy a primordial being to save the gods and also the world. If that wasn’t enough of a load to bear than nothing was. It would be incredibly unfair to be yelled at on top of that because she didn’t roll up her sleeping bag properly or whatever. But Sterling was a people pleaser first and foremost, and therefore knew that she would still push herself to meet April’s impossible expectations.

Which is why, as she packed the travel bag Chiron had given her, and walked to the big house with Blair, she couldn’t help but go over her checklist over and over again.

“Are we sure that three toothbrushes are enough,” Sterling asked. She was walking blind, rummaging through her bag. The only reason she hadn’t run into something or fallen yet was Blair’s hand on her arm, steering her away from danger.

“Yeah, pretty sure,” Blair sighed, pulling Sterling to make sure she didn’t run into a group of campers sitting on the grass in front of them.

“But what if I lose one?” Sterling’s tone bordering on a whine.

“You never lose things Sterl, that’s my thing.” Blair pointed out, “and we shouldn’t be gone that long. I don’t think anyone could lose three toothbrushes in like a week.” Sterling shrugged at that, but moved on, checking to make sure she had remembered deodorant. As they reached the big house porch, Blair ripped the bag from Sterling’s hands.

“Hey, stop worrying,” Blair said, holding the bag out of reach of Sterling’s hands. “At least not about this. We need to be focused. This is going to be super weird and probably scary. We need to have each other’s backs, OK? We can’t be worrying about the little things.” Sterling looked at Blair with a face that screamed ‘are you serious.’

“You saw April this morning. If we go in there anything less than 300% prepared, she will fillet us.” Sterling made a grab for her bag, hand clamping on Blair’s shoulder.

“What did I say about worrying about the little things?” Blair said, stretching her arm behind even further her, and using the other arm to push Sterling away. “That girl is three feet tall,” Sterling grabbed the arm holding the bag and tugged it toward herself. Blair dropped the bag just as it was within Sterling’s grasp, catching it by the strap with her foot. She pivoted around, sticking her leg out, her arms spread like she was playing defense in basketball. Sterling grumbled something like, OK that was kind of cool, before trying to jump past her arms. She tried to go around Blair’s wingspan, but she just continued to pivot keeping her away. They had started squabbling, Blair repeatedly yelling to stop worrying about the little things to which Sterling would reply with a give me my bag back.

This was, of course, where the rest of the quest members found them, along with Chiron, Yolonda, and Bowser. Blair looking like she was mid crane kick, with Sterling fruitlessly trying to surpass her to get the bag dangling from her foot.

“Good morning girls,” Chiron greeted from the porch steps. The twins immediately stopped their actions, frozen in a twisted tableau. They slowly turned their heads to the group, as they unwound themselves from each other. Bowser was rubbing his temples, as he tended to do around them. Luke and Hannah B. looked as confused as ever. Ezekiel was desperately trying to hold in laughter. Yolonda didn’t seem surprised by what was happening, but had both girls fixed with a strange look. Chiron was watching them like someone would an old home video, wistful and peaceful. April looked like she vaguely wanted both girls to disintegrate into ash.

“Sup,” Blair replied. She grabbed Sterling’s bag from where it dangled on her foot and handed it back to her.

“Good morning sir,” Sterling said, an embarrassed smile gracing her features. April rolled her eyes and fixed the straps on her backpack. “Ummm… so…” Sterling started, something about the annoyance radiating off of April was incredibly distracting, “How do we get this thing started?”

“Bowser will drive you out of camp. He can’t take you all the way to your destination, but he can get you an hour out of camp. Unfortunately, from there, it’s up to you.” Chiron said, “We believe you will find Uranus on Mount Othrys, which is now located in San Francisco. The mortals call it Mount Tamalpais.”

“What do you mean now located?” Blair asked incredulously, “Like it moved?” April rolled her eyes again. Sterling wondered if she was seeing something up there that was interesting.

“No,” She said, “The mountain itself didn’t move, just the gods. Whenever the world’s center of power shifts, the gods take up new roots. They moved from the Greeks to the Romans. Before they were in America they were centered in Britain. Etcetera” Blair sneered at April.

“Feels a little Eurocentric.” She said at the same time Sterling asked: “Wait, where is Mount Olympus?”

“It is at the top of the Empire State Building.” Chiron answered, glancing down at April who looked like she was going to try and rebuttal what Blair had said. The twins both nodded, it made sense. Or as much sense as anything else did at this point. “Before you reach Uranus, you will need to retrieve a weapon, The scythe my father, Cronos, used to destroy him last time. The last known sighting of it was on an island to the north of Greece called Corfu. We believe that since the shift of the gods to America, it can now be found in Seattle, Washington. Once you get the Scythe you must take it to Mount Tam and destroy Uranus.” The twins gulped.

“Oh, is that all,” Sterling said, trying to force a laugh, that ended up sounding more like a wheeze. Chiron gave her a sympathetic look.

“Unfortunately, no, it is not,” Chiron said, to which Blair groaned. “You must do all of this by the Summer solstice, in five days. I believe that this is when Uranus will put his plan into action. The solstice is the longest day of the year, and therefore, when the sky is the most powerful. Now,” Chiron ushered Miles onto the porch from inside of the big house. He held a quiver in one hand and what looked like a ring and a brass knuckle in the other in the other. “I have weapons for you before you leave.” April took this as her cue to leave, the other campers following her back in the big house, they all clearly had their own weapons to retrieve. Chiron motioned for Miles to speak.

“This quiver is designed after the ones the hunters of Artemis use. They have quivers and bows that appear only when they want them to. We don’t have that same ability, but we can come close. This quiver has a magic compartment that stores arrows, and only opens when it senses your hand reaching for one. It should be able to hold more arrows then you will ever need. I already stocked it up. There’s a lot in there,” He handed her the quiver, which she immediately slung on her back. “This is your bow,” he said, handing her the ring. Sterling gave him a look as she slipped it on her right index finger. It was gold and had an emblem of a sun on it.

“Press the sun,” Miles said, stepping away. Sterling looked at Miles skeptically, she twisted the ring until her thumb could reach the emblem and pressed it softly. It clicked and immediately she felt metal shoot out from the ring, A handle pressed against her hand and she grabbed it, holding it away from her as the length of the bow grew until she was holding a short bow, four feet long, in her hand. After the band of gold snaked off of her finger, the bow stopped moving. It was golden like the ring, and light weight in her hand. On instinct she reached back into a quiver, feeling an arrow press into her palm. She quietly nocked the arrow and pulled the string to her cheek. About 50 yards away, a camper was attempting to tack something to a bulletin board. He dropped the tack and leaned down to grab it; his hand remaining splayed on the flyer. Sterling loosed the arrow, watching as it stuck itself in the place the boy had been attempting to pierce with the tack. He hit his head on the arrow as he was jolted up. He looked around wildly before his eyes landed on Sterling. She waved sheepishly as the boy looked between the flyer and where Sterling stood, half a football field away. At this point the other members of the quest party had returned with matching bags and had been watching Sterling. Luke, Hannah B., and Ezekiel stood slack jawed. April looked annoyed, but her mouth too hung open just slightly. Sterling turned back to Miles who also looked surprised but with a smile on his face, looking happy that his creations were being put to good use.

“If you want to return it to ring form, hold down the button on the bottom of the handle and twist it.” Sterling did as he said holding the button and flicking her wrist. The bow began retracting at the same fast rate, and in the blink of the eye, Sterling was holding nothing, and the ring sat wrapped around her finger.

“Cool,” Sterling whispered. Mile’s smile widened at that. He turned to Blair

“These are for you, they seemed more your style,” He said, handing Blair the brass knuckles. Blair eagerly pulled them on her fingers. Miles opened his mouth to explain how it worked, but Blair figured it out too quickly. She squeezed the brass knuckles, and Sterling heard a soft click. A long, curved blade shot out of one end of the knuckles as the knuckles themselves retracted into an incomplete handle. Sterling somehow knew the name of the type of sword was a Kopis. Something about it screamed Blair. The open handle meant that the sword could be held strongly in a multitude of ways and the curved blade seemed like it would be good at offense as well as defense. Blair twirled it in her hand, experimentally moving through different positions. She smiled widely at Miles, who grinned back at her.

“You were absolutely right, this is dope.” Blair said, her eyes gleaming as she looked down the blade.

“When you’re done using it, tap the back of the hilt,” Blair followed the instructions, tapping the hilt on the side of her leg. The sword shrank once again into brass knuckles. “Oh, and don’t worry about losing them, because they will always return to your pocket, so-” Blair cut Miles off by throwing the knuckles across the lawn. The group watched as they arced through the air and landed in the grass several yards away. They stayed silent watching the knuckles for several moments. Sterling raptly watched the shining bronze in the grass, trying to see if she would notice when they would disappear and return to Blair’s pocket. After nearly a minute, Blair reached into the pocket of her jeans and gasped. She pulled out the brass knuckles, showing them to Sterling. She joined her sister in gasping and turned to Miles. She had too many questions, each one flitting around her head at a dizzying rate. She finally landed on:

“What if you don’t have pockets?” Miles' eyes widened, like he had never been asked that question.

“Uhh… I-I don’t know,” He stuttered, “I guess they would probably go in your backpack or something.” Blair walked up to Miles and kissed him on the cheek.

“Thank you Miles, this is really sweet,” She said, smiling up at him. His cheeks flushed as he looked down at her.

“Oh yeah no problem. I figured since I couldn’t come with you on the quest, I still wanted to help out how I could,” He rubbed the back of his neck, his blush deepening. Chiron cleared his throat.

“I believe that Bowser is ready to go when you are,” He said stepping off the porch. He was in full centaur form again today and he stood above the twins. “I wish you the best of luck, girls,” he said reaching a hand down to each of their shoulders. They smiled up at him and nodded. Bowser and Yolonda appeared from behind Chiron as the centaur returned to the big house. Yolonda looked at the girls, her face unreadable, but full of emotion. Bowser continued to look as tired as ever.

“C’mon,” Yolonda said, she had taken to looking at Sterling strangely that morning, “Let’s get loaded up in the van.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK so now the action is gonna get going lol. Sorry for the wait for the update, updates are probably gonna be coming about once a week now.


	6. Chapter 6

The van was white. Or at least it had been about ten years ago. As it stood now, it was splotched with scratches and dents in the paint, that seemed to turn it light gray. It was an industrial looking thing, like something a catering company or something like that would have. It had no windows in the back and a blocky, stout frame. It had been so badly beaten over the years, it looked like a hard candy someone gave up on sucking halfway through. Bowser had parked it on the side of the road that ran along the camp, Sterling briefly wondered if he was allowed to drive, seeing as he didn’t have actual feet. Faded lettering on the door proclaimed the van as property of the Delphi Strawberry service.

“Delphi strawberry service? What is that?” Sterling wondered aloud.

“We sell the strawberries from the strawberry field. It helps pay for stuff.” A low voice startled Sterling. With a jolt she spun around and nearly smacked Luke upside the head. Her hand was mid-swing, about five inches from his face, when she realized who it was and stopped in her tracks. Her hand hanging in the air, Luke’s face surprised, his head pulled back to avoid the blow. His hands were up in a ‘don’t shoot’ gesture

“Sorry,” Luke said sheepishly as he and Sterling lowered their hands, “I didn’t mean to scare you. I can be kind of sneaky sometimes.”

“No worries,” Sterling smiled, slipping her hands in her pockets. Luke’s shoulders fell to their typical relaxed position and he smiled back at Sterling.

“I’m Luke, by the way, son of Hephaestus,” Sterling raised an eyebrow, a smile creeping on her face.

“I know, we met last night. Remember?” she teased. Luke blushed light pink, his hand going to the back of his neck.

“Oh yeah, right. I just figured I should introduce myself. Officially. But I can see how that would be weird now. Um, because you already knew that. And I knew you already knew that.” His cheeks were fully red at this point and Sterling felt a little bad. The poor boy looked like a tomato. She put her hand on his shoulder, in an attempt to reassure the boy.

“It’s not weird. It’s actually really sweet, I appreciate it” Sterling said. Luke still looked a little apprehensive, so she moved her hand from his shoulder and brandished it to him. “I’m Sterling, daughter of Apollo.” Luke finally smiled, (although his cheeks were still a little red) and he grabbed her hand and shook it. “Very cool. And that is my sister Blair, daughter of Hermes.” She pointed to the brunette Wesley, who had just come running over the hill, towards the van. Blair had been so caught up in reassuring Sterling about _her_ packing list, that she had forgotten to double check what she herself had packed. She hadn’t packed a single pair of socks and had to run back to her cabin to get some. April had rolled her eyes when Blair had squeaked before running like a bat out of hell back towards the cabins. Since then, she had been leaning against the door looking thoroughly impatient. She had her arms crossed, her thumb tapping incessantly on her bicep. Sterling couldn’t help but feel annoyed at her behavior. Blair had only been gone for five minutes.

Blair came to a stop right next to Sterling taking a deep breath through her mouth and blowing it out her nose. At the rate she had been running, anyone else would be panting and covered in sweat, but not Blair. She almost looked like she had somehow gained energy from it.

“Hey guys, what did I miss,” She said. Sterling narrowed her eyes at her. Her hair sat unblemished in its ponytail. She had run probably almost a mile in less than five minutes. Not even a drop of sweat.

“How do you do that?” She asked, swiping her hand across her sister’s forehead. Blair frowned, smacking her hand away.

“Do what?” She dodged another swipe from Sterling. “Stop it!”

“You just ran a five-minute mile, and you aren’t sweating, like not even a little bit” Blair grabbed Sterling’s wrists.

“Okay one, it was only like three quarters of a mile and I had a 20 second break in the middle while I was grabbing the socks,”

“That just means you ran it even faster!” Sterling whined, trying to reach Blairs armpits from her restrained position.

“Shh. Two, how about you tell me how you are suddenly an Olympic level archer,” Sterling stopped, her arms outstretched.

“Touché,” she conceded, her arms bending at the elbow. With a shake of her head, Blair dropped Sterling’s wrists.

“Actually, I might have an answer to both of your questions,” Luke raised his hand like he was waiting to be called on. Blair and Sterling looked at each other before they turned back to Luke. Blair pointed at him with a frown indicating for him to continue. “It’s your guys’ parents.” He proudly stated a finger pointing at both girls. The twins tilted their heads in mirrored confusion. What about Debbie and Anderson suddenly made them world record athletes? Luke’s forehead crinkled as he thought of a more detailed explanation. “Apollo and Hermes are both the gods of a lot of things.” he landed on, “One of the things Apollo rules over is archery, that’s why you picked it up so quickly. And Hermes is the messenger god, so, you know, running.” He shrugged his way through the explanation like he didn’t want to say something wrong, and was waiting for someone to correct him. The girls thought about what Luke had said. Sterling had a nagging feeling in her gut. Like she was missing something.

“What else does Apollo rule over,” she asked, hoping to understand what was brewing in her chest. Luke squinted at the sky as he thought.

“Archery, like I said. Prophecy, sports, the arts. Those are the main ones I think,” he said, counting on his fingers.

“And the sun,” Yolonda had at some point tuned into their conversation. Sterling turned around and looked at the woman. Her brown eyes bore into Sterling’s face. Her gaze held some deep emotion, but she was masking it well with whatever she was trying to silently communicate to the girl. Unfortunately, the only person she could read well enough to have silent conversations with was Blair so all she got was: Caution.

“Yeah that’s it. I knew I was forgetting one, because it used to be Helios, but not really anymore. I always forget that.” Luke said snapping his fingers. Sterling couldn’t take her gaze off of Yolonda.

“Good to know,” she said softly. Something about how she said it clearly put Yolonda at ease. Her gaze softened for half a second, before she let out a breath through her nose.

“OK kids, let’s get this show on the road,” She opened the passenger door of the van and jumped in. Luke led the twins to the sliding panel door and opened it for them. There were no seats on the inside, just a few empty strawberry crates, which made the whole van smell sweet. April, Hannah B., and Ezekiel, had gotten in before them, occupying the wall farthest from the open door. Ezekiel was perched on one of the crates, and he leaned on his knees as he talked to Hannah B. over April’s head. April had taken up the same posture as she had outside, arms crossed, thumb tapping.

“Are you ready?” She asked. Normally that type of question makes one feel supported and comfortable. April asked it like she was conducting a job interview for a watchmaker.

“Yep,” Sterling chirped. Someone had to be positive in the groups. Besides, she wasn’t nearly confrontational enough to say anything else. Blair muttered something under her breath that sounded an awful lot like _ready to kick your ass_.

“Good, I have something for you,” she said, her face serious as she stared at Sterling. She glanced briefly at Blair, to indicate the gift was for the both of them, but other than that she didn’t take her eyes off of Sterling. Sterling stared back at her. April’s eyes were blue. The specific shade was interesting, it looked close to green in some lights and slate almost gray in others. Sterling had never seen anything like it. She hadn’t noticed that before. She also hadn’t noticed how April had a lopsided smirk, one corner pulling hard to the left of her face. Sterling blinked, why was April smirking? Glancing down Sterling realized that she was holding out a book. “I noticed that your knowledge of Greek mythology was a little lacking,” her voice was saccharine, dripping in mock sincerity. Sterling gently took the book from her hand. It was hardbound and a cartoony centaur smiled widely up at her from the brightly colored cover. The title read, My First Big Book ‘O Mythology. Sterling blushed furiously, realizing how childish the book was. Blair sneered at April, before leaning against the van wall and closing her eyes. The van started moving and Bowser announced they would be at their stopping point in an hour and a half. Yolonda had taken their cell phones before they left stating that they somehow functioned as monster beacons. Which seemed needlessly inconvenient for demigods, who already had it too tough.

To her left Blair and Luke had both already managed to fall asleep. Luke was even snoring lightly. Ezekiel and Hannah B. were having some sort of hushed discussion over April’s head about flowers, while April sat with the end of a pen between her lips and a journal in her lap. She started scribbling something down, before taking up a pensive stance once more. Having nothing else to do, Sterling opened the book and began to read.

By the time the drive was over, Sterling had actually learned a lot. She had started by reading the page on each main god, each one drawn in ancient Greek robes and neon colors. She tried to take in as much information as she could on each page, even going so far as to quiz herself on the more notable sections. Afterall, this was life and death now. She had stared at the gleaming cartoony face of her father the longest. He had golden curly hair and sky-blue eyes and dimples framing his mouth. His face was completely symmetrical, and his teeth were perfectly white. She could see how they had a similar eye color, and they were both blonde, but she couldn’t tell from the picture if she looked anything like him. She wondered if he even looked anything like the drawing at all. She hadn’t felt this lost about her identity since her parents had first told her she was basically adopted. She had learned so much about herself in the last 24 hours, but she felt like it all added up to one steaming pile of confusion. She briefly wondered if she had ever even met her father. If she ever would. She also spent a good amount of time looking at Hermes. Her mom had told Blair that she chose her ‘biological father’ as the sperm donor because he reminded her of her real dad. Looking at the picture Sterling understood why. They both had playful smiles and a tricky gleam in their eyes. According to the cartoony picture, they actually also had pretty similar noses. She made sure to thoroughly study the page on Uranus. It didn’t have much and she read the sparse page at least three times, trying to soak in all of the information on it. The earth goddess Gaea had been born from chaos, and Uranus had been born from Gaea. Together they bore the cyclops and Hecatoncheires also known as the hundred handed ones. Uranus banished them to Tartarus, which was apparently a giant pit, and a god, and a mythological supermax prison all at the same time. Next they gave birth to the titans, but apparently Gaea was pissed, because she had the oldest titan and father to Zeus and Chiron, Cronos, kill Uranus. Sterling couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise when she found out exactly how.

“They cut off his twig and berries?” Blair, who had woken up after an hour-long power nap, looked over her shoulder and stuck her tongue out in disgust.

“That’s so gnarly,” she whined, waving her hands. April looked up from her notebook, her face twisted in annoyance, perfectly reflecting her opinion of the conversation.

“Yeah they did that type of thing a lot back then,” she said, eyebrow raised. Sterling and Blair gagged. Luke squirmed next to Sterling; an involuntary frown sat on his lips. Sterling gasped as she had a second revelation.

“Are we gonna have to cut off his pecker too?” she exclaimed. Blair started shaking her head, grabbing Sterling’s arm and repeatedly saying ‘ew.’ April closed her journal, widening her eyes at the pair.

“Is that where the two of you draw the line? You’re telling me that the world could be ending, but you refuse to cut off an evil primordial being’s evil primordial genitals. You’d rather let the world burn?” She said incredulously. Sterling saw her point, but she didn’t need to be so rude about it.

“Of course, we aren’t saying that” Blair scoffed, “all we said was that it was really super mega-gross.” Sterling nodded, but with half the venom with which Blair had spat the words at April. The daughter of Athena just rolled her eyes as she went back to scribbling something in her journal. Blair scooted closer to Sterling so that they could both read the book for the remainder of the journey. They had gotten about halfway through the monster section when Bowser announced that they had arrived.

They could smell it even before they stepped outside. Rust, oil, and gasoline baking in the sun. Sterling wrinkled her nose at the scent. It was like a car fire with just a hint of garbage. Bowser opened the door, stepping aside to let the kids exit. April, obviously, was the first out, power walking out of the van, followed slowly by the rest of the group.

They had arrived at some type of dump, or maybe a junkyard. It looked like it could almost be a giant parking lot, but every car in the lot was ancient, and had some sort of huge problem. Some were completely missing the front windshield. Some had so many bullet holes in them that they looked more like giant stipple sponges, than vehicles that had functioned at one point. Sterling even saw a compact car that was missing the entire trunk. Not just the bumper, or the lid, but the entire trunk. It looked like some giant had taken an axe to it.

“Welcome to Essington Avenue, Philly’s favorite junkyard,” Yolonda announced, spreading her arms in gesture that would be more fitting announcing they had arrived at a mansion. Or Disneyland. At some point during the trip, she had put on sunglasses and she pushed them into her hair as she continued to talk. “We are gonna have to leave you here, so please don’t do anything stupid.” This was directed exclusively at the twins who opened their mouths to protest, before closing them again. She made a point.

“And listen closely to this,” Bowser added looking warily between the kids, “I am not saying that April’s in charge, but if she tells you to do something, for your own sake, please listen to her.” This was again said just to the twins. Blair rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. Sterling could feel the way April tilted her head smugly to the side, even though she stood at least five feet apart. God, she was annoying. How did she manage to be so self-satisfied all of the time?

“OK, with all of that said, we need to hit the road,” Yolonda said, walking back to the car, but not before stopping in front of April and giving her some sort of meaningful nod that Sterling didn’t understand. April simply nodded back. Whatever the two had communicated seemed to be very serious, given how their foreheads were set with a matching wrinkle between their eyebrows. Yolonda nodded again before walking back to the van. April took her journal out of her bag and added some notes into it. On his way to the van, Bowser stopped in front of the twins.

“I know the two of you have had to accept a lot of weird stuff in the last 24 or so hours. Your lives have changed a lot, and that can be really hard to deal with.” Bowser paused. He made an odd claw-like gesture and dragged it diagonally over his heart as he took a deep breath, “When the two of you get back, we can sit down and have a very long conversation about every question you two might have.” He paused again, this time to make eye-contact with both girls. “But right now, I need you two to… to roll with the punches. I know you may not know those four yet,” He tilted his head to the four demigods standing at the entrance of the dump. “But they are the best we have, and I need you to trust them. And I need you to have each other’s backs. Can you do that for me.” His short speech hit both girls like a truck. That was… a lot to take in. The seriousness of what they were about to do loomed over their heads, dark and oppressive. Sterling suddenly felt a wave of anxiety hit her. She turned and looked at Blair.

_Damn that’s heavy shit, Blair raised her eyebrows._

_Language Sterling interjected with a tilt of her head. Blair’s eyebrows fell again, her mouth falling into a line. Right, sooo not the right time, Sterling admitted with a shake of her head._

_Anyways, I think Bowser’s right, Blair squinted. As much as I hate April and her stupid uptight guts, we’re gonna have to trust her. It’s the only way we’re gonna get through this._

_I agree Sterling nodded, taking a deep breath. But, hey, at least not everyone sucks. Luke seems really nice. Blair tilted her head at that._

_Do you like him? She asked, a hint of a smile slipping onto her face._

_What, No! Sterling exclaimed. He seems nice and everything, but I don’t think I like-like him or anything. Her nose wrinkled at her own childish choice of words. And besides that, doesn’t matter right now, I’m just saying not everyone on this stupid quest with us sucks butt._

_OK That’s fair, Blair conceded. So, we can do it, we can trust them. Sterling nodded in agreement._

“We can,” Blair answered nodding firmly. Bowser let out a breath, that could have definitely been relief. Sterling turned her head, smiling with her lip jutted out.

“Aw, Bowie, you care about us.” Sterling cooed, reaching out and patting the satyr’s cheek. He wrinkled his nose at the sentiment but didn’t flinch away. Blair held her hand over her heart and aww-ed at the interaction. That appeared to be all the feelings the man could handle for the day because he clicked his tongue and started heading to the van.

“Wait,” Blair called. Bowser stopped and turned slowly to look at the twins. His hand massaging his forehead.

“Yes?” He sighed.

“Do your horns, like, retract back into your head, or are you just really good at hiding them? Because I swear I did not notice them until today.” Bower rolled his eyes with a whispered oh my gods before he got into the van. He backed out of the parking space and started driving toward the exit. He stopped the van where the six demigods stood, his window rolled down.

“As the old saying goes: Bye.” He called to them before pulling out of the parking lot and driving away. And the quest had begun. And they had to get to Seattle and then San Francisco in the next five days. Less than five days now, seeing as it was already ten in the morning.

“Damn, OK where’ the nearest airport?” Blair wondered aloud, squinting around the junkyard. April shook her head.

“We are not going to fly. Uranus is the sky, we will not be travelling through his domain.” She said curtly, before turning to Luke. “What are the odds of you getting one of these cars in drivable condition?” The brown-haired boy looked intently at the sea of broken-down cars.

“Like 85%,” he said, before gasping loudly. A smile slid across his face. “Make that 100%.” He started gleefully walking, almost skipping, into the junkyard, leaving the others with no choice but to follow him.

As they walked toward whatever Luke had spotted, Sterling saw more weird things. Weird even for a junkyard. Some of the cars looked to be smashed flat, but she saw no sign of any machinery that could do that. There was a strange piling of scrap metal that looked oddly like a coffee table. If Coffee tables were six feet tall. There was a piling of tires next to it shaped like a giant chair. _The things these places will do for a gimmick_ Sterling thought.

After walking about a city block deep into the yard, Luke came to a stop, grinning proudly, his hands settled firmly on his hips. They found themselves in front of an ancient looking SUV. It was red, and from its boxy shape, you could tell it was made before the iron curtain came down. It was decrepit, missing several windows, paint was peeling off of the doors. Dents covered just about 70% of its surface area and it was fully missing the grill. Sterling could see parts of the engine block.

“Luke what the hell is this?” April asked, pointing to the pile of junk in front of them.

“This is a 1978 Ford Bronco.” He answered, either not noticing or not caring about the bite in her tone.

“No this was a 1978 Ford Bronco. Now it’s a really ugly metal sculpture.” She said, tilting her head to the side with a grimace.

“Well I can turn it into a car again.” Luke said with a shrug, “It's probably going to take me five hours or so, but I think it’s our best bet.” April shook her head again.

“We don’t have five hours,” She mumbled to herself, “Would it go faster if you had help?”

“Uh, only if they already kind knew what they were doing,” Luke said wincing, he also knew that five hours was too long, but he couldn’t help it. Sterling’s hand shot up of its own accord. Everyone in the group turned to look at her curiously. She swallowed.

“Umm, I know about cars,” she offered with a shrug. “My dad and I spend our summers fixing up this super old car he has, it’s a 60’s Jaguar E-Type, so I know my way around the basics. And fixing stuff up.” Luke smiled widely.

“Yeah, absolutely, that should really cut the time down,” he was nodding so vigorously Sterling worried about whiplash.

“And so do I,” April said with a nod. The group looked at her oddly. “I can also fix cars,” April clarified quickly. Yet again was she met by strange looks. She rolled her eyes, “I read. So, the three of us will work together to fix the truck, while you three try to plan a route to Seattle, with these.” She dumped a pile of maps from her backpack onto the car’s hood. She set her shoulders looking around the group, daring anyone to interject or oppose her plan. Blair tilted her head in annoyance, but no one objected. April smiled, “great it’s settled then.” Which of course was when the Cyclops would show up.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic, so feedback is appreciated :)


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